LIBRARY 

Connecticut  Agricultural  College 


Vol. 


1  I  ^  ?-Z 


Class  No. 


1^  n  J)  ^^- 


Date 


.CXa^- 


BOOK     150. B63    c.  1 

BOLTON  #  EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR 

TEACHERS 


3  T1S3  Q0D0333b  7 


J^  ^J^t.^  f^'  H  B^  ^"^^1^ 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY 
FOR  TEACHERS 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY 

FOR  TEACHERS  '^^^ 


BY 

FREDERICK  ELMER  BOLTON 

DEAN   OF   THE    SCHOOL    OF    EDUCATION,    UNIVERSITY   OF  WASHINGTON 

AUTHOR  OF 
"principles  of  education,"  "the  secondary 

SCHOOL  system  OF  GERMANY" 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  BOSTON 

ATLANTA  SAN  FRANCISCO 


ISO   . 

Bt3 


Copyright,  1923,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


xi^n 


TO 

MY  WIFE 

OLIVE    FOSTER    BOLTON 

THIS   VOLUME   IS 
AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED 


PREFACE 

During  the  last  decade  a  marked  interest  in  the  scientific 
study  of  education  has  developed.  One  of  the  results  of 
this  increased  interest  and  more  intensive  study  is  the  addi- 
tional requirement  of  educational  psychology  in  all  teacher- 
training  courses.  Many  laymen,  indeed,  have  become  inter- 
ested in  educational  processes  to  a  degree  greater  than  ever 
before.  Much  that  may  be  legitimately  treated  in  a  course 
in  general  psychology  is  of  purely  academic  interest  and  has 
no  value  for  education.  Therefore  some  topics  that  appear 
in  works  on  general  psychology  are  not  included  here. 

This  book  has  been  written  for  this  ever- widening  public — 
the  young  teachers  who  wish  to  get  a  right  start  in  their  pro- 
fession by  becoming  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  the 
subject;  the  older  teachers  who  wish  to  have  the  results  of 
experiment  and  research  that  have  met  with  most  favor;  and 
that  great  number  of  persons  interested  in  the  subject  of  edu- 
cation who  have  faith  in  the  boys  and  girls  of  to-day  and 
wish  to  have  a  part  in  making  them  the  worthy  citizens  of 
to-morrow. 

A  trio  of  great  Americans,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  William  James, 

and  John  Dewey,  who  are  destined  to  receive  very  generous 

consideration  in  the  history  of  education,  have  influenced  the 

writer  more  consciously  than  all  others.     His  obligations  to 

them  are  apparent  on  every  page. 

r.   iL,.   r>. 


For  permission  to  quote  passages  from  their  books,  special  ac- 
knowledgment is  due  to  the  following  authors  and  publishers:  Harris, 
Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education;  Jordan,  Ani^ital  Life;  Search, 
An  Ideal  School,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Dewey,  Schools  of  To-morrow, 
E.  P.  Dutton  &  Company.  Davis,  Vocational  and  Moral  Guidance, 
Ginn  &  Co.  Foster,  Should  Students  Study?  Ho  wells,  A  Boy's  Town, 
Harper  &  Brothers.  Adams,  Herbartian  Psychology  Applied  to  Educa- 
tion, D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.  James,  Principles  of  Psychology  and  Talks  to 
Teachers  on  Psychology;  Woodworth,  Psychology,  Henry  Holt  & 
Company.  Monroe,  DeVoss,  &  Kelly,  Educational  Tests  and  Mea- 
surements; Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  Houghton  Mifflin 
Co.  Thorndike,  Educational  Psychology,  Elements  of  Psychology,  and 
Principles  of  Teaching,  Lemcke  &  Buechner.  Schaeffer,  Thinking  and 
Learning  to  Think,  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  Book,  Intelligence  of  High 
School  Seniors;  Brewer,  The  Vocational  Guidance  Movement;  Curtis, 
Education  through  Play;  Starch,  Educational  Psychology ;  Titchener, 
Primer  of  Psychology ;  Walter,  Genetics,  Wilson  and  Hoke,  How  to 
Measure,  Macmillan  Co.  Seashore,  The  Psychology  of  Musical  Talent, 
SUver,  Burdett  &  Co.  Van'  Wagenen,  American  History  Scales; 
Woody,  Arithmetic  Scales,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 


CONTENTS 
PART   I.     INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Successful  Teaching  Based  on  Scientific 

Knowledge 3 

II.     Meaning  and  Purpose  of  Education   .     .  13 

III.  How  TO  Study  Effectively 28 

PART  II.     ENDOWMENT  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

IV.  Individual  Differences 39 

V.     Native  Endowment:  Heredity    ....  59 

VI.     Native  Endowment:   Instinct     ....  76 

PART  III.     MODES  OF  LEARNING  AND  BEHAVIOR 

VI I.     Education  Means  Establishing  Modes  of 

Behavior loi 

VIII.     Fundamental  Acquisitions:  Sense- Percep- 
tions        113 

IX.     Learning  and  Expression  Through  Play  125 

X.     Education  of  the  Emotions 140 

XL     Motivation  and  Initiative 156 

XI I.     Conservation  of  Experience:  Memory      .  182 

k 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  Learning  Through  Imitation      .     .     .     .218 

XIV.  Imagination  in  Learning  and  Expression  240 
XV.    Thinking  and  Learning  to  Think  .      .      .  268 

XVI.     Inductive  and  Deductive  Thinking      .      .  285 

XVII.     The  Direction  of  Behavior 305 

XVII I.     The  Transfer  of  Training 323 

PART  IV.     MEASUREMENT  IN  EDUCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 

XIX.     Measuring  Mental  Ability 345 

XX.     Comparing  Achievement 372 

XXI.     Prophesying  Performance 398 

XXII.    Vocational  Psychology 411 

Index 437 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY 
FOR  TEACHERS 


PART  I 
INTRODUCTION 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

CHAPTER  I 
SUCCESSFUL  TEACHING  BASED  ON  SCIENTIFIC   KNOWLEDGE 

Professional  Training  Recent. — Only  within  comparatively 
recent  times  have  teachers  made  any  serious,  special  prepara- 
tion for  the  most  responsible  work  one  could  undertake.  Even 
after  it  came  to  be  acknowledged  that  teachers  should  possess 
good  scholarship  in  the  subjects  to  be  taught,  it  was  not  urged 
that  they  should  possess  that  which  is  equally  important — a 
knowledge  of  the  child  and  skill  and  technic  in  teaching. 
Thanks  to  some  of  our  great  leaders,  however,  the  time  is 
approaching  when  each  teacher  must  have  expert  knowledge 
of  children's  development  and  scientific  methods  of  leading 
and  instructing  them.  No  one  will  be  permitted  to  teach 
who  merely  copies  blindly  what  other  teachers  do.  They  will 
need  to  know  why  they  do  certain  things  and  how  to  meet 
the  needs  of  each  child  under  their  care. 

Science  in  Other  Occupations. — No  farmer  would  be  con- 
sidered intelligent  and  expert  who  continued  to  plant  corn  In 
the  way  his  father  had  done  or  who  merely  copied  his  neigh- 
bors. The  expert  farmer  must  know,  for  example,  the  compo- 
sition of  varieties  of  soils,  the  kinds  of  plants  adapted  to  each, 
the  effects  of  moisture,  and  the  purpose  of  cultivation.  In 
short,  he  must  understand  the  laws  of  growth  and  what  will 
promote  best  In  a  particular  case.  Similarly,  in  raising  cattle, 
horses,  or  hogs,  the  successful  breeder  cannot  be  a  blind  fol- 
lower of  tradition.  He  must  know  general  laws  of  growth 
and  also  know  how  to  contribute  to  the  needs  of  each  particu- 
lar animal. 


4     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Medicine  has  been  elevated  to  a  profession  by  substituting 
scientific  knowledge  for  tradition  and  guesswork.  Manufac- 
turing owes  its  phenomenal  advance  to  the  employment  of 
armies  of  technically  trained  scientific  experts.  The  applica- 
tion of  scientific  methods  to  transportation,  commerce,  and 
employment  management  are  changing  their  status  to  a  pro- 
fessional basis. 

Unscientific  Experience  Costly. — In  business  and  industry 
to  follow  tradition  blindly  is  exceedingly  costly.  In  modern 
economic  enterprises  the  one  who  does  not  utilize  scientific 
methods  finds  himself  distanced.  Advantageous  procedure 
may  be  discovered  through  experience  only,  but  to  follow  the 
trial-and-error  method  often  results  in  disaster. 

The  care  and  training  of  the  precious  lives  of  children  should 
not  be  considered  any  less  important.  The  teacher  should  be 
so  impressed  with  the  importance  and  responsibility  of  teach- 
ing that  he  will  not  be  satisfied  until  every  possible  means  of 
preparation  is  secured.  Some  one  may  say :  "  Can  expertness 
be  gained  in  any  way  except  through  experience  ?  "  Certainly 
experience  ought  to  make  one  a  more  efficient  teacher,  but 
we  should  ask  ourselves  another  question,  viz.:  "At  whose 
expense  shall  we  gain  experience?"  A  renowned  physician 
was  once  complimented  upon  his  skill  as  an  oculist.  He  said : 
"It  is  true  that  I  have  some  skill  in  treating  defective  eyes, 
but  in  acquiring  my  skill,  alas,  I  have  spoiled  a  whole  hatful 
of  eyes !" 

Lessons  from  Scientific. Experiments. — If  a  farmer  can  get 
twice  as  large  a  crop  by  scientific  methods  of  planting  and  cul- 
tivation as  by  traditional  methods,  he  will  certainly  conclude 
that  it  pays  to  understand  scientific  methods.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  many  times  in  recent  years  that  the  corn-crop 
could  be  doubled  by  scientific  agriculture.  Even  boys  and 
girls  who  have  studied  the  subject  scientifically  have  raised 
twice  as  much  corn  per  acre  as  their  fathers  who  had  raised 
corn  all  their  lives.  The  fathers  possessed  experience,  but  not 
scientific  knowledge.  Hence,  their  experience  was  of  little 
value. 


SUCCESSFUL  TEACHING  5 

Experiments  have  proved  that  children  can  learn  twice  as 
much  as  they  usually  do  while  going  to  school,  or  that  they 
can  learn  the  same  amount  in  half  the  time,  or  learn  their 
lessons  twice  as  well.  Should  not  the  taxpayers  become 
aroused  over  the  great  waste  of  time  and  money  ?  Many  ex- 
periments have  been  conducted  in  which  children  omit  all 
formal  study  of  arithmetic  in  the  first  two  grades.  By  the 
end  of  the  fourth  grade  such  children  are  as  far  advanced  as 
those  who  have  had  the  subject  four  full  years.  Again,  chil- 
dren will  acquire  two  or  three  foreign  languages  without  diffi- 
culty and  speak  them  perfectly,  while  grown  persons  have 
great  difficulty  in  mastering  a  single  foreign  language.  What 
would  we  think  of  a  circus  manager  who  tried  to  train  old 
men  to  become  trapeze  performers  ?  Oftentimes  there  is  more 
scientific  knowledge  displayed  in  training  circus  animals  than 
in  training  children  in  public  schools.  Thousands  of  children 
have  become  nervous  wrecks  because  they  began  reading  and 
writing  before  their  minds  and  muscles  were  fitted  for  the  task. 

Pupils  used  to  attend  school  a  year  or  two  before  being 
able  really  to  read.  They  were  taught  by  the  alphabet 
method,  a  method  which  is  absolutely  unscientific  for  teaching 
beginners  to  read.  A  study  of  the  psychology  of  learning  led 
teachers  to  doubt  the  method,  and  to  experiment  with  the 
word  and  sentence  methods.  Now,  skilful  primary  teachers 
enable  children  to  read  intelligently  stories,  even  as  difficult  as 
"Hiawatha,"  within  four  months.  The  recent  emphasis  upon 
**  silent  reading,"  which  is  not  a  new  method  but  was  used  by 
the  writer  thirty  years  ago,  is  giving  results  that  should  easily 
convince  the  most  sceptical  that  scientific  teaching  yields  re- 
sults that  save  the  taxpayer's  money  and  save  the  precious 
time  of  the  children.  That  scientifically  trained,  skilful  teach- 
ers can  produce  more  efficient  results  than  the  untrained  and 
unskilful  has  been  demonstrated  beyond  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt. 

Some  Causes  of  Failures. — John  may  have  failed  to  get 
his  arithmetic  lesson,  not  because  the  teacher  did  not  know 
enough  arithmetic,  but  because  John  was  not  in  a  condition 


6     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

to  receive  what  was  imparted.  A  dinner  of  doughnuts,  hard- 
boiled  eggs,  and  mince  pie  had  drawn  the  blood  from  his  brain 
so  that  he  was  too  sleepy  to  understand  arithmetic.  Mary- 
may  have  lain  awake  the  night  before  dreading  the  examina- 
tion. Another  child  has  come  to  school  without  breakfast, 
another  has  had  to  get  up  at  four  o'clock  to  help  his  widowed 
mother,  another  child  has  defective  vision  and  has  been  left 
on  the  back  seat  to  strain  his  eyes,  and  even  then  to  see  things 
in  a  distorted  manner.  No  wonder  that  some  of  them  find 
trouble  with  their  studies,  fail  in  examinations,  and  finally 
quit  the  struggle  altogether.  Then  there  are  children  who 
are  utterly  incapable  of  doing  the  regular  work  of  the  school. 
Intelligence  testing  has  revealed  in  an  unmistakable  way  that 
there  are  great  mental  differences  among  children,  and  that 
some  in  school  should  be  in  special  institutions.  How  many 
of  the  vast  numbers  of  children  who  drop  out  of  school  might 
be  retained  if  teachers  only  understood  children's  minds  bet- 
ter !  How  many  boys  and  girls  have  been  drawn  from  the 
home,  often  to  become  outcasts  in  society,  just  because  father, 
mother,  and  teacher  failed  to  understand  them  at  the  critical 
age  of  youth ! 

Importance  of  Knowledge  of  Children. — A  knowledge  of  the 
child  is  the  most  fundamental  and  important  part  of  the 
teacher's  preparation.  Many  teachers  with  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  their  subjects  fail  because  they  do  not  understand  the 
boys  and  girls  who  are  to  be  taught.  Many  assume  that  chil- 
dren are  like  plastic  clay  and  can  be  moulded  at  the  will  of  the 
teacher.  Any  observing  parent  or  any  intelligent  teacher  of 
experience  knows  better.  Boys  and  girls  are  not  passive 
lumps  of  clay;  they  are  living,  pulsating,  developing,  mysteri- 
ous beings,  who  must  be  studied  and  understood  before  they 
can  be  taught  in  the  true  sense.  The  boy  who  sits  before  the 
teacher  is  in  reality  a  very  different  being  from  what  he  ap- 
pears to  be,  and  only  the  teacher  who  can  fathom  those  mys- 
terious impulses  which  make  up  the  life  of  every  boy  can  ever 
hope  to  be  his  true  teacher. 

Only  recently  have  we  come  to  realize  that  the  most  difficult 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING  7 

factor  In  education  to  understand  Is  the  mind  of  the  child  to 
be  taught.  We  may  know  subjects,  and  we  may  know  prob- 
lems of  Ufe  and  the  relation  between  these  two,  but  we  must 
also  know  how  each  of  them  appeals  to  the  child  before  us  and 
how  to  use  the  school  and  environment  so  as  to  stimulate  this 
budding,  pulsating  personality  and  cause  him  to  unfold  his 
higher  potentialities  and  become  a  vital  force  in  promoting 
the  welfare  of  the  world.  The  way  to  do  this?  No  better 
answer  has  been  given  than  the  scriptural  answer:  "A  little 
child  shall  lead  them." 

Care  for  the  Child^s  Health. — The  young  person  on  begin- 
ning the  Important  work  of  teaching  is  quite  apt  to  think  at 
once  of  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  other  subjects  of 
instruction  as  the  main  things  in  connection  with  her  work. 
Too  often  the  physical  health  and  welfare  of  the  pupils  are 
overlooked,  or  left  to  chance  consideration. 

AbiUty,  experience,  genius  count  for  notning  when  health 
fails.  Business  men  are  coming  to  recognize  this  and  to  give 
more  attention  to  their  own  health  and  that  of  their  employ- 
ees. They  understand  that  poor  health  means  inefficiency, 
and  inefficiency  means  decreased  profits.  School  hygiene, 
both  of  body  and  of  mind,  have  come  to  have  an  important 
place  in  the  training  of  the  teacher. 

Child  Psychology  Determines  Methods. — A  knowledge  of 
children's  minds  and  the  way  they  work  is  certain  to  convince 
one  that  in  order  to  teach  efficiently  we  must  get  the  child's 
point  of  view.  Many  well-conceived  aims  of  education  do 
not  bear  fruit,  simply  because  the  teacher  does  not  understand 
the  workings  of  children's  minds.  The  teaching  is  done  in 
terms  of  adult  thinking  and  means  nothing  to  the  child.  The 
child  mind  understands  concrete  things  rather  than  abstrac- 
tions. We  must  appeal  to  the  child  through  his  every-day 
experiences  and  on  the  plane  of  his  stage  of  development. 
Instead  of  beginning  with  definitions,  abstract  principles,  and 
laws,  the  meaning  of  them  should  first  be  made  clear.  Other- 
wise the  statements  are  empty  words.  Every  concept  should 
have  Its  concrete  examples  to  which  the  mind  can  turn  for 


8     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

illustrations  at  any  time.  Any  attempts  to  foist  abstractions 
upon  the  child  will  produce  but  a  veneering  that  is  sure  to 
scale  off.  Unless  they  can  form  concrete  images  which  may 
be  used  as  measures  of  the  thing  talked  about,  the  idea  is  hazy 
and  fades  quickly.  Those  ideas  which  have  been  built  up 
either  through  sense-perceptions,  bit  by  bit,  or  through  im- 
agery in  much  the  same  way  are  the  ones  that  persist. 

We  constantly  appeal  to  the  child  through  our  own  experi- 
ences instead  of  through  his.  We  expect  him  to  comprehend 
the  complex  abstractions  and  the  conventionalities  of  which 
we  speak  to  him  in  an  almost  unknown  tongue.  Christ  as  a 
teacher  was  far  wiser.  Notice  how  he  selected  his  illustra- 
tions from  the  every-day  life  of  his  hearers.  Though  a  car- 
penter himself,  he  never  used  illustrations  from  that  occupa- 
tion, but  he  recalled  his  hearers'  experiences  as  shepherds,  as 
husbandmen,  as  fishermen,  etc.  Illustrations  leading  up  to 
great  truths  were  always  selected  from  experiences  near  at 
hand.  He  recalled  the  sparrow,  the  foxes,  the  lilies  of  the 
field,  the  seed-time  and  harvest,  the  sower  who  went  forth  to 
sow,  the  manna  in  the  wilderness,  the  widow's  mite,  the 
Pharisee  and  the  publican — objects  with  which  they  were  all 
familiar. 

Instruction  of  children  should  begin  with  experiences  per- 
sonally familiar  to  the  particular  children  taught,  and  make 
the  teaching  radiate  from  those.  The  point  of  contact  for 
the  city  child  is  of  one  kind  and  for  the  country  child  another. 
Children  appropriate  words  so  easily  that  they  frequently  de- 
ceive others  into  thinking  they  possess  real  knowledge  when 
they  have  absolutely  no  comprehension  of  what  they  are  talk- 
ing about.     Doctor  Dewey  says: 

While  I  was  visiting  in  the  city  of  Moline  a  few  years  ago,  the  super- 
intendent told  me  they  found  many  children  every  year  who  were  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  text-book  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  stream  of  water  flowing  past  their  homes. 

Teachers  Must  Be  Masters  of  Subjects. — It  should  be  self- 
evident  that  the  teacher  should  understand  thoroughly  the 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING  9 

subject  to  be  taught.  The  teacher  whose  knowledge  of  arith- 
metic, geography,  or  history  is  inaccurate  or  narrow  must  fail 
utterly  to  inspire  confidence  in  pupils.  The  teacher  should 
not  only  be  able  to  comprehend  the  subject  taught,  but  should 
have  such  a  thorough  mastery  of  it  and  have  it  so  pedagogi- 
cally  organized  that  he  can  present  it  clearly,  concisely,  and 
forcefully.  The  teacher's  knowledge  should  be  so  broad  and 
thorough  that  if  the  pupils  cannot  understand  one  illustration, 
others  can  be  given  immediately.  No  two  pupils  learn  in  the 
same  way,  and  consequently  the  teacher  must  be  so  familiar 
with  the  subject  that  he  can  see  it  from  every  angle.  Not 
only  must  there  be  thorough  mastery  before  beginning  to 
teach  the  subject,  but  there  should  be  daily  preparation  with 
each  particular  class  in  mind  to  make  the  subject  fresh  and 
stimulating. 

Teachers  Must  Know  Life  Outside  the  Schoolroom. — Inas- 
much as  the  school  subjects  are  only  means  to  an  end — that  of 
understanding  and  mastering  the  problems  outside  of  the 
school — and  since  a  large  part  of  real  education  is  derived 
through  life  outside,  it  is  necessary  for  the  teacher  to  know 
something  besides  the  formal  school  subjects. 

In  order  to  connect  the  child's  schoolroom  experiences  with 
life  experiences  outside,  the  teacher  must  know  life  beyond 
the  four  walls  of  the  school.  Too  many  teachers  know  little 
of  the  great  bustling  world  and  its  hum  of  industries.  They 
live  a  cloistered  life,  and  what  studying  they  do  is  confined 
to  the  text-books  from  which  they  teach.  Text-books  and 
formal  lessons  are  but  a  means  to  an  end,  viz. :  that  of  enabUng 
pupils  to  acquire  something  through  which  they  can  interpret 
life  and  solve  some  of  its  problems.  If  schoolroom  education 
is  to  do  that,  the  pupils  must  see  the  significance  of  the  things 
they  do  in  the  school.  That  means  that  the  teacher  must 
understand  the  relation  of  the  formal  subjects  to  life  outside 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  workings  of  the  child  mind  whereby 
the  child  can  be  made  to  understand  those  relations.  If  a 
boy  once  sees  that  geometry  and  spelling  are  important  in 
accomplishing  the  things  which  he  wishes  most  of  all  to  do, 


lo    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

there  is  little  difficulty  in  getting  him  to  study  diligently. 
Therefore  the  teacher  of  spelling  and  geometry  needs  not  only 
to  know  spelling  and  geometry,  but  how  those  are  involved  in 
the  boy's  interests.  The  largest  problem  of  the  Latin  teacher 
to-day  is  not  in  imparting  instruction  to  pupils  in  correct 
Latin,  but  in  getting  boys  and  girls  interested  in  studying 
Latin.  That  can  be  done  by  making  it  significant  in  relation 
to  life's  problems. 

The  teacher  should  know  industrial  life  through  contact 
with  it,  geography  through  personal  experiences,  history 
through  observing  it  in  the  making,  civics  through  being 
a  wide-awake,  intelligent,  participating  citizen,  literature 
through  watching  its  production  in  the  magazines  and  books 
of  to-day. 

The  Teacher's  Problem  Summarized. — In  view  of  the  fore- 
going it  is  obvious  that  the  teacher  who  wishes  to  become  a 
master  craftsman  must  make  a  careful  and  prolonged  study 
of  his  profession.  He  must  understand  that  art  and  skill 
in  this  noble  profession  are  based  upon  scientific  principles 
the  same  as  in  other  callings.  While  teachers  "are  born, 
not  made,"  the  same  is  true  of  lawyers,  doctors,  and  engi- 
neers, and  all,  while  born  with  the  potentiaHties,  must  be  de- 
veloped through  mastery  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  their 
work. 

The  teacher  should  ever  keep  in  mind  that,  in  order  to  suc- 
ceed, a  trinity  of  ideals  must  ever  be  kept  in  the  foreground, 
viz.: 

1 .  A  clearly  defined  aim  of  education  in  general  and  of  the 

particular  problem  under  consideration. 

2.  A  knowledge  of  the  great  world  about  the  child  and  the 

child's  present  and  future  place  in  it. 

3.  A  knowledge  of  how  to  make  the  subjects  of  instruction 

contribute  to  those  aims.  This  will  mean  (a)  mastery 
of  subjects  of  instruction,  (b)  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  child  mind  and  its  workings,  and  (c)  technic 
and  skill  in  guiding  the  child. 


SUCCESSFUL  TEACHING  ii 

Results  Already  Apparent. — Not  only  has  increased  skill  in 
teaching  secured  greater  efficiency  in  results,  but  the  content 
of  the  curriculum  has  been  wonderfully  improved.  School- 
books  and  schoolroom  exercises  connect  with  life  in  such  a 
vital  way  that  school  is  an  interesting  place  to  most  children* 
The  old-time  picture  of  the  whining  schoolboy  is  absolutely 
misleading.  Children  now  really  like  to  go  to  school.  Also 
the  things  learned  in  school  do  have  a  much  more  vital  rela- 
tion to  later  life  than  formerly.  So  interesting  and  vital  have 
the  school  activities  become  that  the  drawing  and  holding 
power  of  the  school  is  rather  astonishing.  In  our  city  (Seattle, 
Wash.),  of  the  2,000  children  finishing  the  grammar  grades 
in  June,  1 921,  over  90  per  cent  were  found  in  the  high 
schools  in  September  of  the  same  year;  and  of  the  1,400 
finishing  the  high  school  the  same  year,  about  65  per  cent 
were  found  in  college  or  normal  school  at  the  opening  of  the 
fall  terms.  Fully  10  per  cent  more  will  enter  higher  institu- 
tions of  learning  within  three  years  after  graduation  from 
high  school. 

The  science  of  education  may  be  credited  with  most  of  these 
achievements.  By  studying  the  meaning  of  education  in 
terms  of  life,  by  selecting  content  to  make  vital  these  relations, 
by  studying  the  needs  of  society  and  of  individual  boys  and 
girls,  and  by  developing  a  science  and  art  of  teaching,  these 
great  changes  in  education  have  been  brought  about.  The 
public  seldom  thinks  of  the  teacher  as  being  responsible  for 
these  changes.  But  were  the  professional  training  of  teachers 
to  be  abolished  for  a  decade,  the  whole  structure  of  education 
would  begin  to  totter. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Show  the  types  of  progress  made  in  farming  since  your  parents  were 
children.  2.  To  what  extent  has  farming  been  made  scientific?  3.  Has. 
farming  been  made  more  attractive  and  remunerative  thereby  ?  4.  What; 
are  some  of  the  evidences  of  a  new  science  of  education  ?  5.  Is  education 
more  efficient  now  than  in  the  "good  old  days"?  6.  Suggest  some  types. 
of  educational  procedure  that  are  still  carried  on  in  traditional  ways.  7.. 
What  countries  have  made  their  education  most  scientific?     Reasons. 


12  EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR   TEACHERS 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  I. 

2.  Dewey,  The  School  and  Society,  chap,  I. 

3.  Dewey,  Schools  of  To-morrow,  chap.  I. 

4.  Judd,  Introduction  to  the  Scientific  Study  of  Education,  chap.  I,  XXH. 

5.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  I,  XVI. 

6.  Tyler,  Growth  and  Education,  chap.  I. 


CHAPTER  II 
MEANING  AND  PURPOSE  OF  EDUCATION 

Popular  Notion. — Usually,  when  the  term  "education"  is 
mentioned,  people  think  of  the  formal  work  of  the  schoolroom. 
There  arise  visions  of  reading-books,  arithmetics,  grammars, 
and  children  gathered  in  classes  reciting  lessons,  pictures  of 
classrooms,  library,  and  laboratories.  True,  these  are  con- 
nected with  the  formal  educational  process,  but  are  they  in- 
dispensables  or  even  essentials  ? 

In  reality,  men  were  educated  long  before  the  days  of 
schools  such  as  we  now  know  them.  In  the  days  of  ancient 
Greece  men  whose  names  we  have  cause  to  remember  had 
little  or  no  formal  schooling.  Even  reading  and  writing  are 
not  absolutely  necessary  accomplishments.  We  are  told  that 
the  Homeric  poems  may  have  been  composed  and  passed  on 
orally  long  before  they  were  penned.  In  ancient  times  the 
slaves  learned  reading  and  writing.  The  freemen,  their  mas- 
ters, did  not  need  to,  as  the  slaves  could  do  these  things  for 
them. 

Few  of  our  ancestors  but  a  half-dozen  generations  back 
could  read  and  write.  But  were  they  uneducated?  Could 
they  not  do  well  a  great  variety  of  things  that  we  cannot  do  ? 
They  were  highly  trained  and  skilled  in  the  arts  and  crafts 
necessary  in  their  environment.  Their  minds  were  as  keen, 
alert,  and  well  trained  in  thinking  as  those  of  men  to-day. 
In  what  manner  were  their  training  and  development  secured  ? 
By  the  very  types  of  things  which  educate  men  to-day,  far 
more  than  through  books  and  schools.  Some  of  the  means 
will  be  mentioned. 

The  Home  as  an  Educator. — First  consideration  should  be 
given  to  the  home.  This  is  the  first  institution  to  touch  the 
life  of  the  individual,  and  in  many  w^ays  the  most  influential. 
Though  the  school  and  one's  business  or  profession  give  more 

13 


14     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

definite  mastery  of  technical  accomplishments  which  come  to 
be  regarded  as  the  fruits  of  education,  yet  the  use  to  which 
these  will  be  put  Is  largely  determined  by  the  ideals  in  the 
home.  Religious  creeds  are  learned  at  the  mother's  knee, 
political  beliefs  are  acquired  in  the  family  circle,  and  social 
ideals  largely  determined  by  family  customs.  Honesty,  verac- 
ity, politeness,  good  manners,  clean  living,  and  temperance 
are  most  easily  taught  in  the  home.  Likewise,  on  the  other 
hand,  immorality  and  unrighteousness  may  be  generally  traced 
to  undesirable  home  Influences.  In  fact,  the  Ideals  which 
dominate  life  and  character  and  give  them  significance  owe 
more  to  home  Influences  than  to  all  others  combined.  So  im- 
portant is  this  early  formative  period  that  some  of  the  churches 
say:  "  Give  me  the  child  for  the  first  seven  vears,  and  the  world 
may  have  him  the  rest  of  his  life." 

Other  Institutional  Influences. — Besides  the  home,  there  are 
many  specific  institutions  and  activities  that  educate  as  effec- 
tively as  do  the  schools.  For  the  great  mass  they  provide 
the  major  portion  of  training.  All  forms  of  occupation  fur- 
nish training  and  extension  of  one's  horizon.  Various  scien- 
tific, historical,  and  literary  societies,  clubs,  lodges,  labor  or- 
ganizations, and  guilds  encourage  the  social  instinct  and  give 
intellectual  and  moral  uplift.  Then  special  means  are  em- 
ployed to  supplement  the  schools,  such  as  lecture  courses, 
public  libraries,  reading  circles,  chautauquas,  and  reading- 
rooms.  The  daily  newspaper,  the  magazine,  the  telephone, 
the  telegraph,  commercial  Intercourse,  furnish  knowledge  and 
incentives  for  learning,  and  supply  outlets  for  activities  that 
modify  the  thoughts,  taste,  and  conduct  of  the  individual. 
Even  plays,  games,  sports,  and  pastimes  are  of  moment  in 
developing  latent  capabilities  and  In  stimulating  new  ones. 
In  determining  a  boy's  moral  action  the  neighborhood  environ- 
ment and  the  neighbors'  boys  are  more  instrumental  than  the 
school. 

President  Butler  says  {Meaning  of  Education,  p.  13): 

The  doctrine  of  evolution  teaches  us  to  look  upon  the  world  around 
us — our  arts,  our  science,  our  literature,  our  institutions,  and  our  reli- 


MEANING   AND   PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  15 

gious  life — as  an  integral  part,  indeed  as  the  essential  part,  of  our  en- 
vironment; and  it  teaches  us  to  look  upon  education  as  the  plastic 
period  of  adapting  and  adjusting  our  self-active  organism  to  this  vast 
series  of  hereditary  acquisitions. 

Doctor  Harris  {Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education,  p.  266) 
emphasizes  the  importance  of  the  state  in  education,  and 
maintains  that  indirectly  it  is  the  most  influential  of  all.  He 
writes: 

The  influence  of  the  constitution  of  the  state,  and  of  its  transactions 
with  other  states  in  peace  and  war,  weaving  the  web  of  world  history, 
is  known  to  be  more  powerful  in  educating  the  individual  and  forming 
his  character  than  any  of  the  three  phases  of  education  mentioned 
(home,  school,  church),  for  it  underHes  them  and  makes  possible  what- 
ever perfection  they  may  have.  Without  the  protection  of  the  state 
no  institution  can  flourish,  nothing  above  savage  or  barbarous  human 
life  can  be  realized.  .  .  .  The  state  is  the  essential  condition  for  his- 
tory. .  .  .  History  commences  with  the  evolution  of  man's  substan- 
tial self  and  its  realization  or  embodiment  in  a  state. 

Farm  Life. — The  duties  and  environment  of  the  farm  are 
often  thought  to  be  directly  opposed  to  education.  But  well- 
ordered  farm  life  offers  the  most  advantageous  sort  of  environ- 
ment and  discipline  that  childhood  and  youth  can  have.  At 
its  best,  when  made  significant  through  books,  good  schooling, 
and  the  intelligent  leadership  of  parents.  It  affords  certain 
educative  means  that  money  cannot  purchase  In  crowded 
cities.  The  outdoor  exercise  and  healthful  recreations  de- 
velop firm  muscles  and  red  blood,  healthy  brains,  and  vigorous 
constitutions.  Farm  duties  bring  a  sense  of  responsibility,  so 
often  lacking  In  city-bred  children,  and  also  secure  motor 
training  invaluable  for  all  future  accuracy  of  work  and  for 
will  development.     President  G.  Stanley  Hall  said: 

Of  all  work-schools,  a  good  farm  is  probably  the  best  for  motor  de- 
velopment. This  is  due  to  its  great  variety  of  occupations,  healthful 
conditions,  and  the  incalculable  phyletic  reinforcements  from  imme- 
morial times.  I  have  computed  some  threescore  industries,  as  the 
census  now  classifies  them,  that  were  more  or  less  generally  known  and 
practised  sixty  years  ago  in  a  little  township  which  not  only  in  this 
but  in  other  respects  has  many  features  of  an  ideal  educational  en- 


i6     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

vironment  for  adolescent  boys,  combining  as  it  does  not  only  physical 
and  industrial  but  civil  and  religious  elements  in  wise  proportions  and 
with  pedagogic  objectivity,  and  representing  the  ideal  of  such  a  state 
of  intelligent  citizen-voters  as  was  contemplated  by  the  framers  of  our 
Constitution. 

Because  of  its  opportunities  for  immediate  and  prolonged 
contact  with  nature  there  is  offered  the  best  possible  prelimi- 
nary nourishment  for  the  understanding  and  appreciation  of 
science,  literature,  and  art.  Here  is  offered  the  chance  to 
find  "tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks,  sermons 
in  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 

The  Playground. — The  function  of  play  as  an  educative 
factor  is  beginning  to  be  realized.  It  is  not  long  since  play 
was  regarded  by  many  serious-minded  people  as  sinful.  Its 
biological  and  social  significance  were  not  understood.  Now 
play  is  regarded  as  a  fundamental  instinct  whereby  the  child 
secures  necessary  relaxation  and  invigoration  and  also  the  un- 
foldment  of  manifold  natural  powers.  To  work  properly  in 
adult  life  there  must  be  natural  and  abundant  play  in  child- 
hood.    Bagehot  wrote: 

Man  made  the  school,  God  made  the  playground.  Before  letters 
were  invented  or  books  or  governesses  discovered,  the  neighbor's  chil- 
dren, the  outdoor  life,  the  fists  and  the  wrestling  sinews,  the  old  games 
(the  oldest  things  in  the  world),  the  bare  hill,  the  clear  river — these 
were  education;  and  now,  though  Xenophon  and  sums  become  obso- 
lete, these  are  and  remain.  Horses  and  marbles,  the  knot  of  boys 
beside  the  schoolboy  fire,  the  hard  blows  given  and  harder  ones  re- 
ceived— these  educate  mankind. 

The  great  educative  value  of  play  will  be  discussed  more 
fully  in  a  separate  chapter. 

Influence  of  Chance  Environment. — Not  only  purposive  in- 
fluences educate,  but  also  all  chance  environment.  The  slums 
educate  as  forcibly  as  do  Grand  Avenue,  the  church,  and  the 
school;  a  candidate  for  the  penitentiary  helps  to  educate  our 
boys  no  less  than  does  the  Sunday-school  teacher.  Sometimes 
the  chance  and  baneful  education  is  more  forceful  than  the 
designed  and  elevating.     According  to  Spencer's  definition, 


MEANING   AND    PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  17 

the  purpose  of  education  is  to  prepare  for  complete  living. 
This  even  is  a  conception  of  an  ideal  education.  Dewey  has 
defined  the  term  in  a  much  more  fundamental  sense  by  declar- 
ing that  education  is  not  solely  a  preparation  for  something 
in  the  future.  It  may  include  that,  but  there  is  something 
more  basal.  Education,  he  says,  is  life  itself;  and  conversely 
life  is  education.  Here  is  the  only  conception  which  is  broad 
enough,  even  when  we  consider  ideal  education.  According 
to  this  conception  every  individual  becomes  educated ;  in  fact, 
none  can  escape  it.  Even  the  lower  animals,  as  well  as  man, 
undergo  education,  for  their  experiences  bias  their  future  con- 
duct. 

Influence  of  Primitive  Arts  and  Occupations. — The  stride 
from  savagery  to  civilization  was  a  part  of  race  education. 
Through  the  long  struggle  there  were  no  schools  except  the 
effective  school  of  experience.  In  this  struggle  with  the  ele- 
ments, w^ith  wild  beasts,  and  with  each  other,  men  were  taught 
many  things.  Whenever  one  is  taught  anything  or  learns 
anything  there  is  education.  Primitive  men  for  long  ages 
were  learning  how  to  make  implements  for  warfare,  for  the 
hunt  and  the  chase;  learning  to  make  fire,  how  to  cook,  and 
how  to  spin  and  weave;  how  to  clothe  themselves,  provide 
shelter  and  protection;  how  to  plough,  plant,  and  harvest; 
how  to  cure  disease  and  avoid  pestilence;  learning  methods  of 
transportation,  barter,  and  exchange;  learning  how  to  dig, 
smelt,  and  fashion  the  ores;  how  to  utilize  the  wind  and  water, 
and  employ  the  simplest  mechanical  principles.  They  have  in- 
fluenced profoundly  the  whole  character  of  subsequent  history. 

We  are  prone  to  forget  that  the  school  of  experience  has 
been  in  session  since  the  world  began,  and  there  have  been  no 
vacations.  Nature  has  not  missed  assigning  a  single  lesson. 
The  credits  received  for  the  training  have  been  recorded  with 
absolute  fidelity.  The  education  which  man  has  received  in 
this  wise  is  incomparably  greater  and  the  results  are  much 
more  enduring  than  the  results  of  a  few  centuries  of  formal 
education  since  schools  began.  In  cudgelling  his  brains  for 
some  new  school  arts  which  might  interest  and  profit  the  chil- 


i8    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

dren  it  would  be  well  for  the  schoolmaster  to  take  a  retrospec- 
tive glance  and  pass  in  review  the  school  arts  which  Mother 
Nature  has  employed.  If  he  can  discern  anything  which  is 
related  to  getting  a  living,  providing  food,  clothing,  shelter, 
amusement,  or  advantages,  there  he  will  find  an  interesting 
and  effective  school  instrument.  Utility  has  been  the  watch- 
word of  nature;  it  should  be  the  schoolmaster's. 

School  an  Interpreter  of  Experience. — The  school  should  be 
the  most  effective  educational  institution.  It  should  be,  and 
is  coming  to  be,  the  institution  which  co-ordinates  and  inter- 
prets all  the  experiences  of  life.  The  school  studies  principles 
of  life  rather  than  mere  mechanical  modes  of  immediate  use 
in  gaining  a  livelihood  or  deriving  momentary  pleasure  and 
happiness.  It  thus  furnishes  an  interpretation  of  life  and 
gives  significance  to  all  other  modifying  influences.  It  looks 
to  the  future  more  than  to  the  immediate  present.  The  school 
is  the  standard-bearer  of  the  highest  ideals  of  the  present  and 
of  the  past.  Advanced  forms  of  schools,  also,  seek  to  dis- 
cover new  truths  and  new  ideals,  and  thus  become  not  only 
guidons  of  established  forms  of  conduct,  but  heralds  .of  new 
ideals.  Through  research  the  universities  have  been  the 
greatest  factors  in  advancing  civilization. 

The  Child  the  Centre. — But  even  after  cataloguing  all  the 
ideals  of  education  and  all  the  institutions  and  agencies  that 
influence  the  individual,  we  have  considered  education  from 
only  one  side.  Such  a  procedure  is  Hke  a  study  of  "Hamlet" 
with  Hamlet  left  out.  Modern  educational  inquiry  has  come 
to  study  not  only  ideals  and  agencies  of  education,  but  the 
central  figure  in  the  process — the  child.  Nature  has  been 
proceeding  slowly,  steadily,  for  eons  in  the  production  of  the 
crowning  product  of  evolution,  and  if  we  would  educate  wisely 
we  must  spell  out  at  least  the  fundamentals  of  the  secret. 
Though  we  may  utilize  artificial  substitutes  here  and  there, 
yet  all  must  be  in  harmony  with  the  ways  found  efficient  in 
ages  of  experimentation.  The  modern  educator  is  admon- 
ished to  go  to  nature,  consider  her  ways,  and  be  wise.  The 
latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  deserves  lasting  credit 


MEANING  AND   PURPOSE  OF  EDUCATION  19 

for  centring  the  attention  of  educators  upon  the  child  instead 
of  the  curricula.  Though  not  losing  sight  of  ideals  and  means, 
an  effort  is  made  to  understand  these  in  relation  to  the  de- 
veloping being. 

Spencer's  and  Dewey's  Interpretations. — At  a  time  when 
school  education  was  very  formal,  bookish,  and  unrelated  to 
life  activities  after  school-days,  Herbert  Spencer  said:  "Edu- 
cation is  a  preparation  for  life."  He  brought  about  a  new 
evaluation  of  the  purposes  of  school  education  and  secured  a 
wider  introduction  of  the  sciences  and  practical  studies.  That 
was  of  untold  benefit,  as  the  Middle  Age  type  of  education 
was  largely  valueless  for  the  masses.  Universal  education 
could  never  have  become  a  reality  with  the  old  curriculum. 

Spencer's  contribution  was  of  immense  benefit,  but  as  mis- 
interpreted by  many  it  loses  half  its  value.  By  many  in  this 
money-making  age  of  industrialism  and  materialism  it  has 
been  construed  to  mean  "prepare  only  for  the  industrial  and 
commercial  needs  of  society  as  seen  by  the  adult." 

A  few  years  ago  a  questionnaire  was  submitted  to  a  group 
of  business  men  and  a  group  of  teachers,  asking  what  they 
regarded  as  the  most  important  subject  in  the  elementary 
school.  The  business  men  said  "arithmetic."  They  were 
thinking  of  education  as  a  process  of  providing  children  with 
knowledge  and  skill  which  the  pupils  might  use  later  in  the 
service  of  the  business  men.  They  were  thinking  of  education 
from  the  traditional  point  of  view.  They  were  thinking  of 
providing  tools  for  the  use  of  society.  They  were  thinking, 
also,  of  providing  special  tools  to  use  in  their  own  particular 
occupations. 

According  to  the  "bread-and-butter"  or  commercial  idea 
of  education,  we  should  study  the  industrial  life  about  us  and 
then  select  those  things  that  the  child  will  be  supposed  to 
need  in  later  life,  or  that  the  industries  may  need  to  make 
them  efficient.  This  is  exactly  what  has  occurred  and  is  oc- 
curring. The  business  man  thinks  of  something  that  will 
promote  business  efficiency  and  then  asks  that  it  be  placed  in 
the  school  curriculum. 


20     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Now,  some  arithmetic  will  be  desirable,  but  the  primary 
child  does  not  need  to  know  much  of  the  business  man's  arith- 
metic. The  business  men  were  thinking  of  the  great  need 
for  good  bookkeepers  and  accountants,  and  also  of  the  fact 
that  many  school  graduates  are  wofully  lacking  in  arithmetical 
knowledge.  Consequently  they  said :  "Arithmetic  is  the  most 
important  thing  for  the  school  to  teach."  By  the  same  proc- 
ess of  thinking  business  men  often  decry  the  results  of  public- 
school  work  in  subjects  like  arithmetic,  spelling,  and  hand- 
writing. Alas  !  the  results  are  oftentimes  very  disappointing. 
But  do  the  schools  exist  only  to  prepare  for  business  or  trade 
efficiency?  Whenever  the  business  man  sees  demands  for 
new  lines  of  business  efficiency  he  immediately  urges  that 
courses  be  put  into  the  schools  to  train  for  those  demands. 
Thus  have  arisen  courses  in  typewriting,  stenography,  manual 
training,  journalism,  engineering,  fisheries,  and  agriculture. 
These  are  all  very  commendable,  but  when  all  trade  and  com- 
mercial subjects  have  been  included  and  taught  efficiently 
education  will  not  be  perfect.  There  is  another  side  to  edu- 
cation. Adult  social  needs  are  not  the  only  ones  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

The  majority  of  teachers  did  not  answer  that  arithmetic  is 
the  most  important  elementary  school  subject.  They  an- 
swered: "Reading  and  play."  They  did  not  specify  reading 
simply  because  it  is  a  tool  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
They  were  thinking  of  reading  as  furnishing  high  ideals  of 
life,  as  a  means  of  stimulating  the  higher  and  finer  emotions, 
and  as  a  means  of  awakening  the  latent  powers  of  the  child 
mind.  They  thought  of  play  as  an  activity  for  which  the 
child  has  an  instinctive  craving,  and  when  without  an  oppor- 
tunity to  cultivate  it  the  child  grows  up  malformed  in  mind 
and  spirit,  often  becoming  the  adult  criminal.  Those  teachers 
were  contemplating  education  as  a  means  of  stimulating 
and  unfolding  the  innate  powers  and  potentialities  of  the 
child. 

John  Dewey  improved  Spencer's  definition  of  education  by 
saying:  "Education  is  not  a  preparation  for  life,  but  education 


MEANING   AND   PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  21 

is  life  itself."  Now  what  did  he  mean  by  that?  He  recog- 
nized that  each  child  is  endowed  with  natural  impulses  to  do 
certain  things  at  certain  times,  even  though  the  activity  may 
not  seem  to  have  any  use  to  adult  society.  For  example,  all 
normal  children,  when  left  to  themselves,  begin  to  play.  If  a 
child  does  not  play  we  rightly  suspect  that  the  child  is  sick. 
We  notice  also  that  children  are  not  very  old  before  they 
show  definite  pleasure  at  being  with  others  and  distress  if  left 
alone.  They  naturally  congregate  in  groups  to  play.  When 
about  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years  of  age  the  child  begins 
to  talk  without  compulsion.  They  seem  to  delight  in  the 
process,  especially  when  they  discover  that  they  acquire  per- 
sonal advantage.  Consequently  we  must  recognize  these  nat- 
ural tendencies,  give  them  a  chance  to  develop,  and  aid  the 
child  to  do  what  he  then,  as  a  child,  wishes  to  do. 

Dewey  also  says  {Schools  of  Tomorrow,  p.  i)  that  Rousseau's 
"insistence  that  education  be  based  upon  the  native  capacities 
of  those  to  be  taught  and  upon  the  need  of  studying  children 
in  order  to  discover  what  these  native  powers  are,  sounded 
the  key-note  of  all  modern  efforts  for  educational  progress.  It 
meant  that  education  is  not  something  to  be  forced  upon  chil- 
dren and  youth  from  without,  but  is  the  growth  of  capacities 
with  which  human  beings  are  endowed  at  birth.  From  this 
conception  flow  the  various  considerations  which  educational 
reformers  since  his  day  have  most  emphasized.  .  .  .  Schools 
are  always  proceeding  in  a  direction  opposed  to  this  principle. 
They  take  the  accumulated  learning  of  adults,  material  that 
is  quite  unrelated  to  the  exigencies  of  growth,  and  try  to  force 
it  upon  children,  instead  of  finding  out  what  these  children 
need  to  know  as  they  go  along."  The  child  should  be  doing 
in  school  the  type  of  thing  that  he  would  do  spontaneously 
outside  the  school.  If  we  would  select  wisely  the  curriculum 
for  the  child  we  should  "go  to  the  child,  consider  his  ways,  and 
be  wise." 

The  child  gains  outside  of  the  schoolroom  much  of  what  is 
most  significant.  He  spends,  for  a  few  years  only,  about  six 
hours  a  day  for  180  days  yearly,  in  the  school,  while  all  the 


2  2     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

rest  of  his  time  Is  spent  in  the  home  and  other  places  than  the 
schoolroom.  Inasmuch  as  the  average  child  gets  only  a  sixth- 
grade  education,  it  can  readily  be  seen  that  the  great  mould- 
ing influences  in  the  child's  life  are  predominantly  outside  of 
the  school.  Therefore  we  need  to  recognize  that  the  out-of- 
school  experiences  color  all  that  is  done  at  school,  and,  in  fact, 
determine  most  largely  what  manner  of  men  and  women  the 
children  shall  be. 

If  vocational  efficiency  is  the  chief  end  to  be  secured  through 
formal  school  education,  then  on  what  basis  can  we  justify 
teaching  music,  drawing,  painting,  dramatics,  history,  litera- 
ture, civics,  most  of  geography,  the  elements  of  the  sciences  ? 
Even  most  of  algebra,  geometry,  foreign  languages,  never  have 
the  slightest  vocational  value  for  more  than  90  per  cent  of  all 
pupils  who  pursue  them  in  the  elementary  school  and  the  high 
school.  If  this  is  true,  some  justification  must  be  sought  for 
mortgaging  so  vast  a  proportion  of  the  time  of  such  armies  of 
children  and  youth.  These  subjects  must  also  be  taught 
with  a  diff"erent  ideal  in  mind.  An  examination  of  many 
recent  reading-books  shows  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
selections  are  made  up  of  poetry,  prose  fiction,  psalms,  prov- 
erbs, speeches  from  Webster,  Lincoln,  Washington,  and  moral- 
ity essays.  Why  should  compilers  of  reading-books  select 
those  instead  of  rules  on  business  efficiency,  business  law, 
office  equipment,  blacksmithing,  automobile  repairing,  milli- 
nery, or  dressmaking? 

If  those  are  legitimate  selections  for  school  readers,  surely 
that  Ideal  should  stand  out  clearly  in  the  minds  of  the  teachers. 
Recently  I  asked  a  group  of  students  In  training  for  teaching 
why  those  selections  should  be  included,  and  the  prevailing 
answer  was  that  the  selections  taught  literary  style !  What 
a  perversion  of  the  Scriptures,  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Speech, 
or  Washington's  Farewell  Address,  if  the  only  outcome  is  an 
accretion  to  literary  style  !  The  hearts  of  boys  and  girls  should 
be  thrilled  by  the  Gettysburg  Speech,  high  resolves  stimulated 
by  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  their  whole  lives  motivated  and 
poised  by  the  great  literature  of  all  the  ages. 


MEANING   AND   PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  23 

Citizenship. — As  the  chlefest  outcome  of  most  of  the  studies 
of  the  elementary  school,  the  high  school,  yea,  even  the  col- 
lege, should  not  high  ideals  of  citizenship  be  pre-eminent? 
Good  citizenship  is  primarily  a  matter  of  attitude— an  attitude 
of  individuals  toward  each  other,  of  individuals  toward  so- 
ciety, toward  their  government,  of  governments  toward  indi- 
viduals and  toward  other  governments.  Mere  vocational  effi- 
ciency does  not  insure  good  citizenship.  Sotne  of  the  most 
baneful  and  anti-social  citizens  are  vocationally  efficient  to 
the  highest  degree. 

The  good  citizen  has  the  welfare  of  others  at  heart  and  uses 
liis  skill  in  the  interest  of  society  as  well  as  himself.  Should 
not  the  chief  business  of  the  school  be  to  develop  ideal  citi- 
zenship rather  than  individual  or  national  skill  ?  This  means 
primarily  the  stimulation  of  the  finer  emotions  and  aspira- 
tions of  men  so  that  their  powers  and  skill  shall  be  used  in 
the  interest  of  humanity.  Many  talk  as  if  men  were  in  dan- 
ger of  starving  to  death  because  lacking  in  the  skill  to  gain  a 
livelihood.  There  is  far  greater  danger  of  moral  and  spiritual 
starvation  than  of  physical  starvation.  The  main  reason  why 
men  starve  physically  is  not  that  they  are  lacking  in  the  knowl- 
edge, training,  and  skill  whereby  they  may  earn  a  living,  but 
that  either  they  will  not  work  or  the  greed  of  others  anti- 
socially  disposed  will  not  allow  them  to  work. 

Germany  has  long  used  the  schools  primarily  as  a  means  of 
developing  citizenship.  The  vocational  skill  of  her  people  has 
been  acquired  outside  of  school  through  the  apprenticeship 
system.  The  result  has  been  unrivalled  vocational  efficiency 
and  an  intensely  loyal  people  almost  blindly  faithful  to  the 
citizenship  ideals  developed  through  the  schools.  Now,  I  can- 
not subscribe  to  their  ideals  of  citizenship,  but  no  other  ex- 
ample illustrates  to  the  same  degree  the  efficiency  of  a  school 
system  in  reflecting  the  national  ideals  and  in  turn  moulding 
and  creating  those  very  national  ideals.  Let  us  discover  the 
meaning  of  ideal  citizenship  and  then  consciously  use  the 
schools  to  develop  those  ideals  in  the  minds  of  the  growing 
citizenry.     Vocational  efficiency  will  largely  take  care  of  itself. 


24     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

A  friend  of  mine  was  engaged  in  work  in  the  municipal  gov- 
ernment of  New  York  City  which  caused  him  to  see  much 
poverty  and  destitution.  He  attributed  these  conditions  to 
the  fact  that  throngs  of  children  drop  out  of  school  at  an  early 
age  and  enter  unskilled,  blind-alley  jobs.  This  led  him  to 
say  that  all  children  should  be  taught  only  the  rudiments  of 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  geography.  All  the  "fads 
and  frills"  should  be  cut  out,  such  as  music,  drawing,  paint- 
ing, history,  and  literature.  Then  at  about  the  fifth  grade  all 
should  be  taught  a  trade.  He  said  they  would  then  be  able 
to  go  out  into  the  world  and  earn  a  living.  I  could  not  resist 
asking:  "Is  that  the  kind  of  education  you  want  for  your 
boy?"  He  immediately  forgot  all  he  had  said  and  replied: 
"Of  course  not,  for  my  boy."  No,  it  was  for  the  other  fellow' s 
hoy.  We  may  generally  assume  that  the  one  who  wishes  all 
enriching  "fads  and  frills"  cut  out,  is  thinking  of  the  other 
fellow's  boy. 

The  success  of  even  lawyers,  doctors,  or  engineers,  follow- 
ing supposedly  very  technical  professions,  is  largely  depen- 
dent upon  other  qualities  than  the  technic  of  their  professions. 
The  Mayo  brothers,  Goethals,  and  Edison  never  would  have 
become  world-famous  for  technic  had  they  not  developed 
wonderful  visions  of  service  to  humanity  as  their  great  moti- 
vating impulses.  Each  one  doubtless  has  in  his  laboratories 
technicians  with  greater  skill  in  manipulation  than  their  mas- 
ter, but  they  have  never  been  heard  of  because  it  is  the  great 
world  ideal  of  human  service  that  has  revealed  the  master 
minds.  Philosophers  will  be  remembered  longer  than  tech- 
nicians. The  education  of  the  workman  is  as  vital  a  problem 
as  the  education  of  the  planner,  but  the  workman  must  be 
taught  to  plan  as  well  as  to  take  orders  and  follow  specifica- 
tions. 

Our  greatest  task  in  all  grades  of  school  is  to  develop  large, 
broad-minded  ideals  of  citizenship.  It  is  a  more  difficult  task 
than  to  train  to  skill  and  technic.  In  the  world  of  civiliza- 
tion, one  genuine  leader  with  power  to  marshal  the  forces  of 
nature  and  human  skill  and  direct  them  to  efficient  service  in 


MEANING   AND    PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  25 

the  Interest  of  humanity,  will  mean  more  than  a  thousand 
hands  with  skill  alone. 

Vocational  training  must  become  thoroughly  established 
and  maintained.  The  man  without  a  regular  vocation  in 
which  he  is  reasonably  efficient  is  a  dangerous  man.  The  na- 
tion without  industrial  vigor  and  efficiency  is  a  decadent  na- 
tion. Every  man  ought  to  have  a  means  of  livelihood.  Every 
nation  must  encourage  the  handicrafts,  trade,  and  commerce 
and  secure  efficiency  in  all  of  them.  But  are  these  all  and 
are  they  most  fundamental  ?  Is  there  not  danger  that  the 
ideal  of  efficiency  in  gainful  occupations  may  crowd  out  all 
other  ideals  and  its  dominance  mean  danger?  Efficiency  in 
gainful  occupations  unmodified  by  higher  ideals  means  sel- 
fishness and  sordidness.  Mere  efficiency  may  crowd  out  all 
opportunity  for  fostering  the  development  of  altruism  and  of 
the  finer  sentiments  contributory  to  it. 

National  superiority  should  not  mean  that  that  country  is 
the  greatest,  the  mightiest,  which  can  achieve  the  most  for 
itself,  can  most  completely  dominate  all  others  for  its  own 
selfish  ends.  We  should  not  alone  ask  how  extensive  its  do- 
mains, how  strong  its  army,  how  efficient  its  navy,  how  rich 
its  mines,  how  fertile  its  fields,  how  shrewd  its  men.  Should 
we  not  also  ask  how  fine  are  its  schools,  how  justly  governed 
its  cities,  how  empty  its  jails  and  poorhouses,  how  unneces- 
sary its  hospitals,  how  justly  its  laws  administered,  how  free 
from  vice,  graft,  and  corruption,  how  charitable  and  mag- 
nanimous its  people,  how  developed  its  ideals  of  freedom, 
what  its  rank  in  the  world's  democracy? 

In  this  education  for  larger  citizenship  every  means  in  every 
grade  must  be  employed  to  instil  worthy  ideals  of  conduct 
and  character.  Every  possible  attempt  should  be  made  to 
awaken  dormant  consciences,  to  arouse  the  nobler  sentiments, 
and  to  inspire  manly  and  womanly  impulses.  Emotions  are 
the  mainsprings  of  life.  Properly  develop  the  nobler  emotions 
and  all  else  will  follow — even  efficiency. 

Instead  of  following  Huxley's  idea  that  education  should 
develop  the  mind  into  a  clear,  cold  logic  engine,  should  not  we 


26     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

also  follow  Milton,  who  says  that  education  "fits  a  man  to  per- 
form justly,  skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices  both 
private  and  public  of  peace  and  war"  ? 

Education  should  be  a  means  of  awakening  and  minister- 
ing to  all  the  higher  instincts,  a  means  of  refining  the  soul  and 
purging  it  of  all  that  is  base  and  Ignoble,  the  means  of  stim- 
ulating to  the  highest  forms  of  unselfish  social  service.  The 
great  problems  of  the  world  which  demand  immediate  solu- 
tion if  our  civilization  is  to  endure  are  not  questions  demand- 
ing alone  technical  skill,  but  are  great  social  and  moral  ques- 
tions. There  is  skill  enough,  scientific  knowledge  enough 
available,  if  there  were  only  courage  enough,  honesty  enough, 
unselfishness  enough  in  their  application.  No  one  of  them 
demands  any  special  amount  of  shrewdness  or  technical  skill. 
A  strict  application  of  the  Ten  Commandments  on  the  part 
of  all  men,  on  the  part  of  all  nations,  would  solve  every  really 
great  question  confronting  the  world. 

Should  another  crisis  come  upon  us  or  should  new  emergen- 
cies confront  us,  may  we  have  as  a  national  asset  the  contri- 
bution of  the  combined  wisdom  and  insight  of  the  home,  in- 
dustry, society,  and  political  organization;  emerging  from  the 
highest  grades  of  our  public  schools  a  grand  army  of  youth 
such  as  the  world  has  never  beheld,  physically  fit,  strong  of 
brain,  sound  in  mind,  with  scintillating  eye,  senses  alert,  hands 
trained  to  a  high  degree  of  skill,  with  abounding  patriotism, 
brave  of  heart,  tempered  in  judgment,  broadened  in  ideals  of 
citizenship,  ready  to  give  all  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom, 
fraternity,  and  justice. 

This  is  the  task  of  education  in  all  grades  of  our  schools. 
The  problem  of  education  will  become  recognized  as  the  prob- 
lem fundamental  to  all  others.  Even  that  of  war  is  less  sig- 
nificant than  ultimate  education,  for  all  war  is  occasioned  by 
miseducation,  and  wars  and  rumors  of  wars  shall  not  be  ban- 
ished from  the  earth  till  all  men  everywhere  shall  have  become 
educated  to  the  highest  degree  in  the  principles  of  true  democ- 
racy, liberty,  fraternity,  equality,  magnanimity,  justice,  and 
good -will  toward  all  men. 


MEANING  AND   PURPOSE   OF   EDUCATION  27 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Ask  the  first  five  persons  you  talk  with  why  children  should  study 
arithmetic,  music,  literature,  algebra.  2.  Do  their  answers  accord  with 
the  point  of  view  of  the  author?  3.  Why  should  your  parents  pay  taxes 
to  educate  your  neighbor's  boys?  4.  Are  highly  educated  nations  most 
efficient?  most  honorable ?  5.  Can  a  nation  determine  its  destiny  through 
education?  6.  Mention  three  nations  that  seem  to  have  accomplished 
that.  7.  Should  education  be  vocational?  Meaning  of  vocational?  8. 
Should  foreign  languages  be  studied  ?  9.  Why  not  teach  trades  to  children 
of  10  years?  10.  Why  not  teach  trades  in  apprenticeships  instead  of  in 
schools?  II.  Discuss:  "The  public  school  should  keep  pupils  out  of  voca- 
tions as  long  as  possible  and  not  hurry  them  into  earning." 

References  for  Reading 

1.  Butler,  The  Meaning  of  Education,  chaps.  I,  II,  III. 

2.  Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  chaps.  I,  II,  III,  IV. 

3.  Dewey,  The  School  and  Society.     Entire  book. 

4.  Hanus,  Educational  Aims  and  Educational  Values,  chap.  I. 

5.  Judd,  Introduction  to  the  Scientific  Study  of  Education,  chaps.  Ill,  IV,  IX. 

6.  Miller,  Directing  Study,  chaps.  V,  IX. 

7.  Smith,  An  Introduction  to  Educational  Sociology,  chap.  I. 

8.  Suzzallo,  The  School  as  a  Social  Institution.     Entire  book. 


CHAPTER  III 
HOW  TO  STUDY  EFFECTIVELY 

Importance  of  Efficiency  in  Study. — It  may  seem  super- 
fluous to  give  advice  on  how  to  study.  Many  think  that  all 
they  have  to  do  is  to  "just  study."  Teachers,  however,  con- 
tinually complain  that  pupils  are  inefficient  in  study.  They 
frequently  lay  it  to  indifference  and  indolence,  but  some  rec- 
ognize that  pupils  do  not  know  how  to  study  and  have  not 
formed  good  habits  of  study.  Several  years'  experience  in 
giving  a  course  to  university  freshmen  in  "How  to  Study" 
has  convinced  me  that  students  do  not  know  how  to  study 
efficiently.  Many  of  these  students  have  expressed  regret 
that  they  had  not  had  such  a  course  in  the  high  school.  They 
believe  that  it  would  have  given  them  a  higher  efficiency  as 
students.  They  now  economize  their  time,  doing  their  work 
more  quickly,  and  getting  more  certain  results.  Consequently 
this  chapter  is  written  with  the  hope  that  it  may  prove  sug- 
gestive to  prospective  teachers  in  improving  their  own  meth- 
ods of  study  and  that  they  may  help  others  to  become  effi- 
cient. Undoubtedly  the  average  student  could  secure  50  per 
cent  better  results  by  improving  his  methods. 

A  Definite  Programme. — Each  one  should  lay  out  a  definite 
daily  and  weekly  programme  and  adhere  to  it.  Pupils  in  the 
elementary  and  high  schools  have  their  schedules  largely  de- 
termined for  them.  There  are  fixed  hours  for  recitations, 
laboratory,  and  shop  periods,  and  even  their  play  hours  are 
arranged  and  fixed.  The  study  hours  are  also  to  a  large  ex- 
tent fixed.  This  is  especially  true  under  supervised  study 
plans. 

But  when  a  student  goes  to  college  or  the  normal  school 
only  the  recitation,  laboratory,  and  shop  periods  are  arranged 
by  the  faculties.     The  students  are  left  to  their  own  initiative 

28 


HOW   TO   STUDY   EFFECTIVELY  29 

to  make  study  schedules.  The  result  is  that  many  students 
study  irregularly  and  in  an  aimless  manner.  Sometimes  they 
prepare  their  lessons  immediately  after  a  recitation,  sometimes 
immediately  before;  sometimes  the  work  is  done  carefully, 
sometimes  slighted — and  sometimes  not  at  all.  If  the  classes 
are  large  and  students  are  not  tested  regularly  on  their  work 
they  fall  into  habits  of  taking  chances  of  being  called  upon 
and  assume  that  getting  caught  once  in  a  while  will  not  be 
very  serious  anyway.     Thus  the  most  slovenly  habits  develop. 

When  to  Prepare  Lessons. — The  best  time  to  prepare  the 
next  assignment  is  immediately  after  the  day's  discussion. 
The  questions  to  be  considered  are  fresh  in  mind,  the  incen- 
tive to  inquiry  is  recent  and  stimulating,  and  the  momentum 
gained  is  worth  capitalizing.  To  postpone  the  preparation 
until  just  before  the  next  recitation  is  wrong  psychologically 
because  the  student  tacitly  says:  "I  shall  depend  upon  catch 
words  and  recency  of  impression  rather  than  upon  thorough 
comprehension."  When  studying  just  before  recitation,  in- 
sufficient time  is  usually  given,  and  the  student  is  in  a  state 
of  undue  nervous  tension,  fearing  that  the  task  will  not  be 
completed.  Work  that  does  not  depend  upon  a  trip  to  the 
library  or  the  laboratory  should  usually  be  done  in  the  eve- 
ning. Then  the  work  may  be  undertaken  deliberately,  with- 
out hurry  or  worry,  and  as  a  rule  it  will  be  well  done.  If  it 
can  be  reviewed  in  the  morning  before  class,  that  will  be  found 
advantageous. 

Adequate  Time  Necessary. — Most  students  are  unwilling 
to  spend  an  adequate  amount  of  time  in  preparing  their  work. 
The  average  college  student  seems  to  think  that  an  hour  is 
sufficient  for  any  lesson.  Most  high-school  pupils  regard  a 
half-hour  as  sufficient.  Though  no  amount  can  be  prescribed, 
because  assignments  and  abilities  vary,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
most  students  spend  only  half  or  two-thirds  enough  time  to 
master  their  assignments  properly.  Of  course,  they  should 
not  be  encouraged  to  spend  more  time  in  accomplishing  the 
usual  results.  Doubtless  they  already  spend  too  much  time 
for  the  results  secured.     But  more  time  properly  spent  would 


30    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

make  the  results  more  accurate,  more  extensive,  and  more 
lasting.  When  inadequate  time  is  given  the  result  is  careless, 
superficial  work.  Consequently,  when  the  teacher  probes, 
only  shallowness  and  inaccuracies  are  discovered.  Mere  call- 
ing of  words  or  skimming  of  head-lines  does  not  allow  time  for 
reflection  and  analysis. 

Undivided  Attention  Necessary. — Concentration  of  atten- 
tion is  absolutely  necessary  to  secure  efficiency  in  study.  The 
"wits  that  go  wool-gathering,"  the  body  that  is  at  school  while 
the  mind  is  at  home  or  on  last  night's  party,  all  spell  failure 
in  study.  To  stimulate  and  gain  the  attention  to  the  work  in 
hand  one  must  put  himself  in  the  right  situation  and  right 
attitude.  Sit  down  at  the  desk  in  the  position  of  study,  turn 
away  from  the  window;  do  not  have  the  newspaper,  the  let- 
ters from  home,  or  the  football  trophies  within  reach;  open 
the  book  and,  if  necessary,  begin  to  mark  the  book  (if  your 
own),  jot  down  notes,  and  ask  yourself  searching  questions. 
Half  the  battle  is  in  starting.  The  tempter  says  you  need  a 
drink  of  water,  an  errand  needs  to  be  done,  you  must  figure 
up  your  accounts,  you  have  forgotten  a  telephone  call,  your 
finger-nails  need  trimming,  or  your  shoes  must  be  polished. 
Sit  down,  take  your  pencil,  and  begin  to  write.  If  impossible 
to  hold  the  attention  easily,  require  yourself  to  write  out 
exactly  some  definite  point  in  the  lesson.  The  habit  of  attend- 
ing will  grow,  and  likewise  the  habit  of  dawdling  grows  even 
more  rapidly.  Some  one  has  said:  "There  is  one  safe,  ser- 
viceable, indispensable,  attainable  quality,  that  of  attention; 
it  will  grow  in  the  poorest  soil  and  in  its  own  time  bear  abun- 
dant fruit." 

Have  Proper  Stirroundings. — It  is  very  important  to  have 
suitable  conditions  under  which  to  study.  For  example,  there 
should  be  a  proper  desk,  appropriate  light,  a  quiet,  properly 
heated  and  ventilated  room,  the  right  pencils,  paper,  and 
books.  Such  details  determine  more  than  most  people  recog- 
nize the  degree  of  success  in  study.  It  is  true  that  the  major- 
ity of  students  in  our  high  schools  and  colleges  do  not  have 
satisfactory  conditions  under  which  to  study.     In  a  scale  of 


HOW   TO   STUDY  EFFECTIVELY  31 

efficiency  rating  undoubtedly  many  would  be  rated  as  low- 
as  50  per  cent. 

Analyze  the  Problem. — At  the  outset,  in  preparation  of  a 
lesson,  analyze  the  problem  in  order  to  determine  the  vital 
things  to  be  accomplished,  the  point  of  view,  the  order  of  im- 
portance of  the  things  to  be  learned,  and  the  method  of  learn- 
ing required.  A  spelling  lesson  or  the  multiplication  table 
needs  to  be  learned  in  a  mechanical  order,  and  drill  is  the 
secret  of  success.  They  are  things  that  need  to  be  repro- 
duced mechanically  through  life,  and  consequently  require  to 
be  memorized  exactly. 

But  a  history  lesson,  for  example,  does  not  need  to  be  fre- 
quently reproduced  in  some  definite  form.  Its  effects  should 
be  like  the  good  counsel  of  friends,  the  knowledge  we  get 
through  every-day  contacts  with  our  acquaintances,  the  facts 
gleaned  from  the  newspapers,  the  interpretations  of  life  made 
in  magazine  essays  and  every-day  conversations,  or  sermons 
from  the  pulpits.  Which  of  us  adults  would  think  of  mem- 
orizing those  verbatim  or  any  other  way?  But  we  learn 
through  all  of  them.  History  gives  a  point  of  view.  Its 
orderly  unfolding  by  the  historian  should  aid  in  getting  that 
point  of  view  and  give  a  critical  attitude  toward  social  experi- 
ences. In  a  similar  way  a  beautiful  poem  should  give  a  thrill 
of  emotion  and  not  mere  intellectual  facts.  Hence  history 
and  literature  should  be  studied  largely  for  appreciation  and 
not  to  secure  tool  facts.  This  will  determine  the  method  of 
studying  them.  In  studying  a  lesson  In  quadratics,  electric- 
ity, the  chemistry  of  combustion,  or  a  psychological  theory, 
the  end  should  be  genuine  comprehension  and  understanding. 
Mere  verbally  memorized  statements  will  be  of  slight  value. 
To  retain  the  idea  they  must  first  be  really  known  and  once 
comprehended  they  will  never  be  forgotten. 

It  Is  well  to  read  hastily  the  entire  lesson  to  determine  the 
general  problem,  to  note  the  large  sub-topics,  and  to  decide  on 
the  method  of  attack.  After  the  first  hasty  reading,  close  the 
book  and  see  if  the  main  points  can  be  jotted  down  from 
memory.     To  assist  in  securing  accuracy  it  is  well  to  select 


32     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

some  of  the  most  difficult  points  and  write  them  out  carefully. 
Go  over  what  is  written  and  criticise  it  mercilessly,  and  revise 
and  rewrite.  Often  it  is  well  to  try  to  explain  a  point  to  some 
one  else.  It  is  also  valuable  to  have  others  criticise  what  one 
has  written.  Frequent  reviews  of  what  has  been  gone  over 
are  absolutely  necessary.  Teachers  should  require  some  re- 
viewing, but  the  real  student  initiates  most  of  his  own  re- 
viewing. 

Topical  Study. — In  making  a  study  of  a  topic  for  a  paper, 
a  debate,  or  an  oral  class  report,  the  first  thing  is  to  analyze 
the  topic  to  know  clearly  what  is  to  be  done.  Ordinarily  the 
beginner  selects  altogether  too  comprehensive  a  topic.  In- 
stead of  taking  a  topic  like  ''Suffrage,"  it  would  be  better  to 
take  a  minute  and  definite  one  like  ''The  Beginning  of  Woman 
Suffrage  in  Washington,"  or  "Should  there  be  a  Property 
Qualification  for  Voting?" 

Before  reading  a  word  or  consulting  any  one,  jot  down  an 
outline  of  the  points  recalled.  State  briefly  your  views  and 
conclusions,  then  begin  to  read,  make  card  references,  brief 
analyses  of  the  articles,  confer  with  others,  and  gather  quota- 
tions. Then  revise  the  outline,  and  begin  to  write  on  the 
subtopics. 

Taking  Notes. — Note- taking  by  college  students  has  become 
a  prevailing  custom,  and  occupies  much  time.  Students  and 
instructors  generally  believe  it  is  very  necessary.  Many  stu- 
dents write  voluminous  notes  in  class;  some  rewrite  them  after 
class.  Many  instructors  require  notes  on  their  lectures  to  be 
handed  in  by  the  students.  The  notes  have  small  value,  but 
are  required  largely  because  of  tradition.  Long  ago  I  gave 
up  requiring  students  to  hand  in  note-books  on  the  lectures. 
Students  soon  discover  where  well-arranged  note-books  may 
be  secured  and  copied.  Even  if  they  were  absolutely  inde- 
pendent the  values  are  questionable.  The  student  who  takes 
full  notes  usually  does  so  with  the  idea  that  by  getting  the 
words  of  the  lecturer  he  will  later  be  able  to  review  the  notes 
just  before  examination  and  thus  pass  successfully.  In  such 
cases  the  final  examination  plays  an  undue  role  in  the  course 


HOW   TO   STUDY   EFFECTIVELY  33 

and  the  Instructor  requires  very  little  reading.  He  assumes 
that  he  is  supplying  all  the  necessary  information.  There  is 
also  usually  very  little  recitation  or  discussion  where  the  "lec- 
ture-note-book method"  is  followed.  It  is  a  delusion  to  ex- 
pect that  the  ideas  will  be  really  comprehended  and  digested 
when  so  much  dependence  is  placed  upon  the  instructor's 
words  alone.  While  taking  the  notes  the  attention  must  of 
necessity  be  divided  between  listening  and  taking  the  notes. 
There  is  also  a  subconscious  feeling  that  understanding  is  to 
come  about  when  reviewing  the  notes.  Usually  they  are  re- 
viewed so  long  after  being  taken  that  the  words  fail  to  sug- 
gest the  ideas  intended. 

There  are  some  kinds  of  notes  that  have  a  high  value. 
Laboratory  notes  on  experiments  and  observations  made  in- 
dependently should  be  required  regularly.  The  problems  set 
should  be  written  up  during  the  laboratory  period,  and  the 
conditions  made  such  that  independence  of  observation  and 
expression  are  secured.  Note-books  that  are  copied  or  con- 
structed by  another  are  not  only  valueless  as  an  intellectual 
method,  but  are  absolutely  vicious  morally. 

Occasionally  it  is  well  to  have  the  students  write  a  resume 
of  a  lecture  topic  or  a  reading  topic  for  the  practice  in  organiz- 
ing material  and  formulating  expression.  Then,  also,  there 
should  be  opportunity  to  write  themes  in  connection  with 
each  subject.  In  taking  the  lecture  notes  the  student  is 
merely  writing  the  teachers'  ideas  in  their  words.  There 
should  be  opportunity  to  organize  his  own  thoughts,  according 
to  his  own  arrangement  and  in  his  own  words.  Notes  of  that 
kind  have  real  value. 

Card-Catalogue  Notes. — Students  should  form  early  the 
habit  of  making  a  card  catalogue  of  books,  articles,  and  refer- 
ences that  bear  upon  their  studies  or  upon  things  that  are  of 
special  interest  to  them.  The  card  reference  should  contain 
(i)  the  name  of  the  author,  (2)  the  exact  title  of  the  book  or 
author,  (3)  the  number  of  pages,  (4)  the  exact  volume  and 
year  of  publication,  if  in  a  magazine,  (5)  a  brief  digest  of  the 
contents — just   enough    to   characterize    the   material.     The 


34     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

cards  have  a  manifest  advantage  over  the  note-book  because 
they  can  be  sorted  and  rearranged  as  necessary. 

The  Lecture  Method. — There  is  absolutely  no  justification 
of  the  traditional,  formal  lecture  in  elementary  courses  for  the 
purpose  of  imparting  information.  There  are  no  high-school 
or  elementary  college  courses  for  which  the  information  is  not 
more  systematically  and  accurately  arranged  in  some  good 
text-book  than  in  the  lecture.  Informal  talks  pointing  the 
way,  indicating  the  significant  points  to  seek,  raising  ques- 
tions, defining  them,  and  stimulating  motivation  undoubtedly 
serve  a  valuable  purpose  in  learning,  but  as  a  purveyor  of 
definite  Information  they  are  of  slight  value.  The  formal  lec- 
ture method  teaches  students  to  avoid  reading  and  to  be  su- 
perficial students.  In  pioneer  fields  such  lectures  might  be 
valuable,  but  there  the  seminar  method  is  used,  which  means 
individual  research.  The  "socIaHzed  recitation,"  where  re- 
sults of  "project  study"  are  pooled  for  the  benefit  of  all  Is 
also  more  efficient.  Why  not  more  of  the  real  seminar  method 
with  college  freshmen  and  high-school  pupils? 

Student  Initiative. — Students  who  study  merely  to  pass 
examinations  or  to  satisfy  the  teacher  never  make  much  real 
progress.  In  order  to  study  efficiently  there  must  be  a  feeling 
of  worth-whileness  on  the  part  of  the  learner.  The  moment 
that  a  student  develops  a  real  personal  Interest  in  improve- 
ment and  takes  himself  In  hand,  that  moment  he  is  on  the 
highroad  to  real  scholarship  and  his  achievements  are  broader, 
more  accurate,  and  more  lasting. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  so  much  study  is  done  merely  as  a 
matter  of  prescription.  There  are  so  many  units  In  the 
course,  so  many  credits  to  be  made,  so  many  days  to  be  In 
attendance,  and  all  the  Ingredients  put  into  the  hopper  are 
supposed  to  make  an  educated  individual.  But  the  number 
of  pages  covered  or  the  credits  gained  do  not  make  an  educa- 
tion. How  vitally  has  the  boy  been  stimulated,  how  great 
are  his  resolves,  how  grippingly  has  the  subject  laid  hold  of 
him,  are  vastly  more  significant.  His  Intensity  of  effort,  his 
tenacity  of  purpose,  candor  and  honesty  with  himself,  his  de- 


HOW   TO   STUDY   EFFECTIVELY  35 

votion  are  far  better  indexes  of  progress  than  the  teacher's 
grade-book. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Jot  down  a  brief  statement  of  your  usual  habits  of  study.  2.  Be 
honest  with  yourself  and  tell  wherein  your  habits  of  study  have  been 
faulty.  3.  Characterize  the  habits  of  study  that  your  chum  follows.  4. 
What  are  the  usual  plans?  5.  Do  you  believe  that  habits  of  study  as  sug- 
gested in  the  text  would  improve  (a)  the  exactness  of  your  work,  (b)  the 
amount  learned?  6.  Point  out  three  of  the  principles  that  seem  to  you 
most  worth  while.  7.  Are  you  willing  to  try  those  three  faithfully  for  a 
term?  8.  Have  you  come  across  any  good  statements  regarding  study 
elsewhere?     9.  Point  out  the  characteristics  of  your  ideal  student. 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Dearborn,  How  to  Learn  Easily,  chaps.  I,  II,  VI. 

2.  Earhart,  Teaching  Children  How  to  Study,  chaps.  I.  II. 

3.  Kitson,  How  To  Use  Your  Mind.     Entire  book. 

4.  McMurry,  How  to  Study  and  Teaching  How  to  Study,  chaps.  II,  IV,  V, 
VII. 

5.  Miller,  Directing  Study,  chaps.  Ill,  V,  VII. 

6.  Sandwick,  How  to  Study  and  What  to  Study,  chaps.  I,  II,  III,  IV,  IX. 

7.  Whipple,  How  to  Study  Effectively,     Entire  book. 


PART  II 
ENDOWMENT  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL 


CHAPTER  IV 

INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES 

General  Consideration. — One  of  the  most  important  lessons 
of  modern  psychology  is  that  no  two  human  beings  are  alike. 
They  differ  in  size,  health,  knowledge,  wealth,  race,  social 
position,  and  innumerable  other  characteristics.  The  differ- 
ences are  due  to  heredity,  environment,  training,  or  individual 
effort.  But  whatever  the  causes  of  the  differences,  the  fact 
of  diversity  forms  one  of  the  teacher's  most  pressing  and  con- 
stant problems. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  there  are  individual  differences 
among  human  beings.  All  through  the  organic  world  there 
are  great  differences  among  individuals  of  the  same  species. 
In  the  plant  world,  for  example,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
find  two  leaves,  two  blades  of  grass,  or  two  plants  exactly 
alike.  Some  slight  differences,  often  microscopic,  serve  to 
give  them  individuality. 

Doctor  Gesell,  of  Yale  University,  writes: 

Take  an  ordinary  kindergarten  and  first  grade,  with  a  combined 
enrolnent  of  one  hundred  pupils,  and  among  this  number  we  may 
expect  to  find  at  least  one  child  feeble-minded;  one  child  who  stutters; 
two  or  three  who  seriously  lisp;  another  extremely  anaemic;  a  badly 
spoilt  child;  another  babyish — a  year  or  two  retarded  in  mental  or 
moral  growth;  and  still  another  morally  weak.  There  will  be  one 
** negative"  child — passive,  colorless;  one  oversensitive,  nervous  child; 
one  superficially  precocious  child;  another  distinctly  super — eager, 
ardent,  imaginative,  sociable.  The  diversity  of  the  ungraded  class 
membership  is  often  pathetically  picturesque.  Here  is  the  roll-call 
for  one  such  class  in  a  large  Eastern  city:  Twenty-four  boys,  sixteen 
girls;  nationahties  Norwegian,  French,  Irish,  Armenian,  Italian,  Aus- 
trian, American,  Chinese;  names  range  from  James  Moriarity  and  Ong 
Yung  to  Arcangelo  Christiano  and  Nishan  Kalehadoarian ;  ages  range 
from  6  to  i8;  mentality,  from  giggling  imbecility  to  ambitious  intelli- 
gence; morality,  from  truancy,  cigarette  smoking,  and  thieving  to  good 
behavior;  parentage,  noted  in  special  cases,  includes  a  drunken  mother, 

39 


40     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

an  insane  father,  and  in  three  instances  gypsies;  physical  condition, 
from  partial  blindness  and  deafness,  and  spinal  trouble  and  anaemia  to 
vigorous  physical  health.  Think  of  the  problem  before  this  teacher, 
who  may  not  even  have  a  working  definition  of  feeble-mindedness  in 
her  consciousness  to  aid  her  in  classification  and  instruction ! 

It  is  not  difficult  to  discover  abundant  cases  of  individual 
variations.  There  are  the  giants  and  dwarfs,  the  tall  and  the 
short,  the  blondes  and  brunettes;  the  beautiful  and  ugly, 
black  and  white,  good  and  bad,  choleric  and  phlegmatic,  bril- 
liant and  stupid,  blue-eyed  and  brown-eyed,  and  other  ex- 
tremes too  numerous  to  chronicle.  Between  these  extremes 
there  are  all  grades  and  shades  of  apparent  difference.  Be- 
sides these  obvious  differences  there  are  innumerable  varia- 
tions which  are  not  so  apparent  and  hence  thought  not  to 
exist.  Some  persons  burst  forth  into  song  with  the  most 
meagre  training,  while  others,  with  the  best  masters,  can  never 
carry  a  tune  or  discover  discord;  some  are  ready  spellers,  while 
many  others  are  hopeless;  some  are  born  mathematicians, 
while  others  never  can  progress  beyond  the  merest  rudiments. 
One  child  early  exhibits  mechanical  genius,  devising  appli- 
ances for  every  sort  of  work,  while  another  can  never  learn  to 
put  together  the  simplest  contrivance;  one  can  memorize  ver- 
batim with  the  greatest  ease,  while  another  can  never  repeat  a 
quotation;  one  person  picks  up  the  pen  and,  without  training, 
begins  to  produce  literature,  while  another  cannot  chronicle 
accurately  the  simplest  event;  one  mounts  the  platform  and 
charms  the  multitude  with  his  eloquence,  while  another  is 
made  mute  in  the  presence  of  an  audience.  Although  all 
human  beings  possess  the  same  general  faculties,  there  are 
wonderful  differences  of  development  among  individuals  and 
also  between  the  lowest  and  the  highest  as  a  class.  Even 
zoologically  there  are  notable  developmental  differences. 
Fiske  remarks  {Destiny  of  Man,  p.  48)  that: 

The  cranial  capacity  of  the  European  exceeds  that  of  the  Australian 
by  forty  cubic  inches,  or  nearly  four  times  as  much  as  that  by  which 
the  Australian  exceeds  the  gorilla ;  and  the  expansion  is  almost  entirely 
in  the  upper  and  anterior  portions. 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  41 

Mental  Variations. — There  are  few  who  would  not  admit 
that  among  people  there  are  many  obvious  differences  of 
physical  structure,  and  that  these  differences  are  natural. 
But  when  mental  qualities  are  considered,  it  is  at  once  assumed 
that  all  are  alike,  or  would  be  if  educated  alike.  Teachers 
even  are  apt  to  think  that  all  the  intellectual  differences  among 
children  can  be  accounted  for  by  differences  of  diligence,  will- 
ingness to  work,  or  application.  They  will  even  admit  that 
temperamental  differences  account  for  differences  of  applica- 
tion, but  tacitly  assume  that  intellectually  "all  men  are 
created  equal."  No  greater  fallacy  ever  existed.  No  two 
individuals  were  ever  exactly  alike,  physically,  mentally,  or 
morally.  Occasionally  a  pair  of  twins  seem  almost  indistin- 
guishable, but  careful  study  of  them  always  reveals  large 
differences. 

The  mental  processes  of  different  individuals  have  their 
special  characteristics,  although  this  is  scarcely  suspected  by 
the  popular  mind.  Some  are  ear-minded,  some  eye-minded, 
others  motor-minded.  Some  persons  think  in  abstract  terms 
very  early,  while  others  never  get  to  the  point  of  doing  ab- 
stract thinking,  but  must  have  everything  in  the  concrete. 
Darwin  tells  us  that  he  does  not  believe  he  ever  would  have 
made  a  mathematician  or  a  lawyer,  because  he  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  carry  on  a  long  train  of  abstractions.  He  had  a  mar- 
vellous mind  for  the  concrete.  Some  pupils  succeed  famously 
with  arithmetic  and  algebra,  but  fail  utterly  in  geometry.  A 
diagnosis  of  their  types  of  imagery  would  doubtless  reveal  in- 
ability to  visualize.  Such  persons  would  never  make  archi- 
tects or  inventors.  Some  children  begin  to  walk  at  six  or 
seven  months,  others  not  until  three  times  that  age.  Some 
can  talk  readily  at  twelve  months,  while  I  have  known  a 
bright  boy  to  defer  this  process  until  four  years  of  age.  One 
record  chronicles  a  list  of  1,200  words  at  two  years  of  age. 
Many  do  very  little  talking  before  two  years.  There  are 
adult  manual  laborers  of  ordinary  intelligence  who  do  not 
have  a  usable  vocabulary  exceeding  2,000  or  3,000  words. 
Many  scholars  use  from  30,000  to  35,000  and  recognize  as 
many  more. 


42 


EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 


INTELLIGENCE  SCORES  MADE  BY  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 
ON  ARMY  ALPHA  TESTS  * 


ALPHA   SCORE 


Freshmen 


NUMBER 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


PER 

CENT 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


Sophomores 


NUMBER 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


PER 

CENT 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


Juniors 


NUMBER 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


PER 

CENT 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


Seniors 


NUMBER 

MAKING 

THE 

SCORE 


205 

200 

195 

190 

185 

180 

175 

170 

165 

160 

155 

150 

145 

140 

135 

130 

125 

120 

115 

IIO 

105 

100 


95 

90 

85 

80 

75 

70 

65 

60 

55 

50 

45 

40 

35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

No.  of  cases . 

Median 

Median 

mental  age 


3 

o 

2 

3 

7 

7 

12 

16 

20 

40 

58 

80 

80 

94 

95 

120 

113 
157 
130 

156 
119 
109 
99 
71 
50 
29 
28 

14 
I 
6 
o 

2 


1,721 
96.48 

15-3 


0.12 


I 

6 

9 

9 
17 
22 

39 
51 
38 
75 
82 

91 

93 

no 

93 
100 

85 
95 
68 

47 
44 
28 
21 
13 

5 

5 

2 

o 

I 

o 

o 

o 

I 

1,253 

110.84 
16-2 


0.16 

0.08 
0.48 
0.79 
0.79 


36 
76 

II 

07 

03 
90 

54 
26 

42 

78 
42 


7- 

7.98 

6.78 

7.58 

5-42 

3-75 

351 

2.23 

1.68 

1.04 

0.40 

0.40 

0.16 

0.08 


0.08 


2 

4 

7 

II 

18 

16 

39 

42 

41 
61 
68 
68 
76 

84 
92 

79 
60 

58 
53 
29 

25 

17 

II 

6 

4 
2 

3 
o 
I 


977 
122.89 

17-0 


0.20 
0.41 
0.72 

113 
1.84 
1.64 

3  99 
430 
4.20 
6.24 
6.96 
6.96 
7.78 
8.60 
9.41 
8.09 
6.14 
5-94 
5-42 
2.97 
2.56 
1.74 

113 
0.61 
0.41 
0.20 
0.31 

O.IO 


I 
o 

2 
O 

4 
6 

14 
18 
21 
38 
33 
41 
60 

47 
50 
67 
60 
61 
60 

51 
42 
22 
20 

9 

8 
20 

4 
4 

I 
2 


766 
126.42 

17-4 


♦  Cobb,  Margaret  V.,  "The  Limits  Set  to  Educational  Achievement  by  Limited  Intelligence,' 
The  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  vol.  XIII.  November,  1922. 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  43 

Recent  "intelligence  tests"  given  to  large  groups  have  re- 
vealed in  an  unmistakable  way  enormous  variations  in  ability 
in  given  classes.  These  were  first  made  definitely  manifest  in 
the  army  examinations.  The  same  and  similar  tests  have 
been  given  to  school  pupils  in  large  numbers.  Miss  Cobb 
gathered  the  results  of  tests  given  to  4,717  high-school  pupils 
in  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Iowa,  and  Illinois.  The  accompany- 
ing table  is  made  from  these  results.  The  test  given  was 
the  "Army  Alpha."  The  table  shows  the  intelligence  scores 
of  the  pupils  for  each  of  the  four  high-school  years.  The  high- 
est score  possible  is  212  points.  The  highest  score  made  by 
a  freshman  was  180  points,  three  pupils,  or  7  per  cent  of  all 
freshmen,  making  that  score.  The  lowest  score  made  by  any 
was  15  points,  that  being  made  by  one  sophomore.  The 
highest  score  made  by  any  pupil  was  200  points,  made  by 
one  senior.  The  rest  of  the  scores  are  quite  uniformly  dis- 
tributed between  the  extremes  mentioned. 

Another  exhaustive  study  was  made  by  Doctor  Book  {The 
Intelligence  of  High  School  Seniors,  pp.  10,  21),  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Indiana,  in  a  state-wide  survey  of  the  intelligence  of 
high-school  seniors  in  Indiana: 

This  mental  examination  consisted  of  ten  separate  tests  of  twenty 
items  each:  for  (i)  rote  memory,  (2)  logical  selection,  (3)  general  arith- 
metical ability,  (4)  opposites,  (5)  logical  memory,  (6)  word  completion, 
(7)  moral  classification,  (8)  dissected  sentences,  (9)  practical  informa- 
tion, and  (10)  analogies.  This  scale  had  been  previously  verified  both 
as  to  its  reliability  for  the  measurement  of  intelligence  and  its  validity 
as  a  practical  instrument  for  making  such  a  mental  survey  as  is  pro- 
posed in  the  present  study.  Previous  to  this  investigation  it  had  been 
used  in  a  survey  of  the  school  population  of  an  entire  Indiana  county, 
and  had  been  given  to  all  grade  and  high-school  pupils  in  three  Indiana 
cities.  Earlier  still  it  had  been  tried  out  with  more  than  25,000  high- 
school  and  grade  pupils  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Colorado,  Dakota,  and 
New  York. 

The  accompanying  table,  based  upon  that  study,  indi- 
cates the  wide  variation  of  intelligence  scores  among  high- 
school  seniors.     Doctor  Book  says:  "As  may  be  seen  from 


44 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


an  inspection  of  this  distribution  curve,  the  range  in  score 
extends  farther  helow  than  above  the  median." 


PERCENTAGE  OF  HIGH-SCHOOL  SENIORS  POSSESSING 
EACH   GRADE  OF   INTELLIGENCE 


Intelligence  grades. . 

A+ 

A 

B 

C+ 

C 

C- 

D 

E 

E- 

1 
F 

Per    cent    of    total 

group  who   made 

each  grade  on  tests 

2 

6 

14 

22 

II 

19 

13 

7 

5 

I 

Variations  in  Achievements. — In  a  set  of  examination  papers 
in  a  large  high  school  there  is  always  exhibited  a  great  range 
of  attainments.  \i  the  highest  is  marked  lOO  per  cent,  the 
lowest  doubtless  will  be  less  than  6o  per  cent,  and  often  not 
higher  than  25  per  cent.  Often  there  will  be  pupils  who 
merit  more  than  100  per  cent,  that  is,  they  surpass  consider- 
ably any  excellence  which  we  may  rightfully  expect.  In 
marking  a  set  of  papers  of  average  difficulty,  some  individual 
papers  ought  to  be  above  100  per  cent.  The  marks  of  100 
per  cent,  or  A,  or  Excellent,  ought  to  mean  not  absolute 
marks,  but  that  point  in  our  scale  which  represents  the  best 
that  may  be  expected  on  the  basis  of  standards  determined 
for  the  given  grade  of  pupils  or  kind  of  work.  For  example,  a 
first-grade  pupil  might  be  marked  100  per  cent  in  penmanship, 
but  an  eighth-grade  pupil  doing  the  same  kind  of  crude  writ- 
ing ought  to  be  marked  about  25  per  cent.  In  large  classes 
several  will  accomplish  more  than  100  per  cent,  the  maximum 
required,  by  outside  reading,  by  more  vigorous  thinking,  and 
because  of  natural  capacities. 

Thorndike  says  {The  Principles  of  Teaching,  p.  71): 

The  amount  of  difference  actually  found  in  children  of  the  same  age 
or  in  children  in  the  same  school  grade  is  greater  than  teachers  perhaps 
realize.  The  range  of  ability  in  school  children  of  the  same  age  is  such 
that  in  a  majority  of  capacities  the  most  gifted  child  will,  in  compari- 
son with  the  least  gifted  child  of  the  same  age,  do  over  six  times  as 
much  in  the  same  time  or  do  the  same  amount  with  less  than  a  sixth 
as  many  errors.  ...  If  the  best  speller  of  the  class  can  spell  correctly 
such  words  as  fatiguing,  appreciate,  delicious,  guarantee,  triumph,  and 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  45 

accident,  the  worst  speller  will  barely  spell  such  words  as  house,  dollar, 
potato,  present,  severe,  and  praise. 

Thorndike  appends  the  examination  papers  of  two  pupils  of 
the  same  class.  A  spelled  correctly  all  except  one  word  out 
of  twenty,  while  B  missed  all  except  one. 

If  the  weakest  pupil  of  a  class  in  computation  can  do  five  examples 
in  ten  minutes,  the  best  pupil  will  probably  do  at  least  twenty.  Roughly 
speaking,  the  teacher  of  a  class,  even  in  a  school  graded  as  closely  as  is 
possible  in  large  cities  where  two  classes  are  provided  in  each  building 
for  each  grade  and  where  promotion  occurs  every  six  months,  will  find 
in  the  case  of  any  kind  of  work  some  pupil  who  can  do  from  two  to  five 
times  as  much  in  the  same  time  or  do  the  same  amount  from  two  to 
five  times  as  well  as  some  other  pupil.  The  highest  tenth  of  her  class 
will  in  any  one  trait  have  an  average  ability  from  one  and  three-fourths 
to  four  times  that  of  the  lowest  tenth. 

And  we  readily  see  that  there  must  be  a  constantly  varying 
deviation  from  normal  conditions  and  averages. 

The  variations  in  achievement  of  pupils  in  a  school  Is  strik- 
ingly illustrated  In  an  "age-grade"  table.  Accompanying  Is 
such  a  table  showing  the  distribution  in  Grand  Rapids,  Mich., 
in  1920.  The  table  may  be  read  as  follows:  There  were  in 
the  first  grade  55  children  5  years  of  age,  1,272  children  6 
years,  691  were  7  years,  199  were  8  years,  etc.  Note  that 
there  were  12-year-olds  and  13-year-olds  In  ten  different 
grades,  and  cliildren  of  14  and  15  In  nine  different  grades  ! 
In  the  first  year  of  the  high  school  there  were  19  who  were 
12  years  old  and  2  who  were  21  years  or  over. 

Revelations  of  a  School  Survey. — On  the  basis  of  a  recent 
school  survey  the  following  striking  variations  were  discov- 
ered: 

(i)  There  is  a  range  of  at  least  six  years  between  the  young- 
est pupil  and  the  oldest  pupil  In  any  grade  from  the  first  to 
the  eighth,  In  the  second  grade  the  range  of  ages  being  great- 
est— nine  years. 

(2)  In  each  grade  from  the  first  to  the  eighth  the  median 
age  Is  at  least  one  year  above  the  national  standard  for  that 
grade. 


46     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

(3)  On  the  basis  of  a  two-year  span  for  each  grade  {e.  g.,  6 
to  7  for  the  first  grade,  7  to  8  for  the  second  grade,  etc.),  40 
per  cent  of  all  pupils  in  grades  one  to  eight  are  older  than 
they  should  be  for  the  grades  in  which  they  are  located,  the 
lowest  percentage  being  31  per  cent  in  grade  four  and  the 
highest  percentage  being  found  in  grade  eight,  54  per  cent. 
In  grades  six  and  eight  there  are  actually  more  pupils  over- 
age than  of  normal  age. 

(4)  In  grades  one  to  eight  only  a  little  more  than  one-half 
of  the  pupils  are  of  normal  age  for  the  grades  in  which  they 
are  located. 

(5)  In  the  first  grade  are  found  pupils  of  ages  all  the  way 
from  6  to  12;  in  the  second  grade  from  7  to  16;  in  the  sixth 
grade  from  9>^  to  18. 

(6)  Pupils  12  years  of  age  are  found  in  every  grade  from 
the  first  to  the  eighth,  and  in  general  pupils  of  any  year-age 
from  8  to  16  are  scattered  over  at  least  five  grades  of  the 
schools.  (From  Psychological  and  Educational  Tests  in  Pub- 
lic Schools  of  Winchester,   Va.,  January,  1922.) 

Causes  of  Individual  Differences. — The  individual  differ- 
ences in  any  given  group  are  always  due  to  many  causes.  In 
the  first  place  there  are  the  sex  differences.  Boys  and  girls 
are  different  in  many  physical  characteristics.  Through  life 
their  bodies  become  increasingly  different  in  size  and  propor- 
tions, as  well  as  in  various  entirely  different  structural  condi- 
tions. Girls  mature  physically  a  year  or  two  earlier  than 
boys,  and  there  is  a  similar  difference  in  mental  maturity. 
While  quantitative  measurements  of  such  intellectual  powers 
as  perception,  memory,  or  reasoning  do  not  reveal  marked 
differences,  undoubtedly  the  mental  lives  as  a  whole  of  the  sexes 
are  very  different.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  emotional 
aspects.  Differences  do  not  mean  superiority  or  inferiority, 
simply  differences.  Psychology  and  literature  have  always 
recognized  these  differences. 

There  are  also  race  and  family  traits  of  heredity  which  dif- 
ferentiate individuals.  These  hereditary  differences  may  be 
either  physical  or  mental.     There  are  the  giants  and  the  dwarfs 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES 


47 


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48 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


physically  of  all  ages.  There  are  likewise  the  brilliant  and 
the  idiotic,  with  all  gradations  between.  The  exact  measure- 
ment of  the  intelligence  of  school  children  in  recent  years  has 
emphasized  these  mental  variations. 

CAUSES  OF  NON-PROMOTIONS  AND  NUMBER  OF 
EACH 


1920-192] 


Irregular  attendance 

Ill  health _ 

Mental  incapacity 

Lack  of  application 

Lack  of  concentration 

Inattention 

Change  of  school 

Immaturity 

Unfavorable  home  conditions 

Physical  defects  (eye,  ear,  nose,  throat) 

Foreign  to  English 

Unwise  previous  promotion 

Unskilful  previous  teaching 

Unskilful  current  teaching 

Not  properly  graded 

No  knowledge  of  how  to  study 

Lack  of  nourishing  food 

Too  many  pupils  in  a  class 

Outside  social  activities 

Rapid  physical  growth 

Entering  late  in  semester 

Discouragement,  owing  to  lack  of  co-operation  at  home.  . . 

Adolescence 

Special  mental  type  for  which  course  of  study  is  not  adapted 
Lack  of  interest  in  the  work 

Total 


190 
165 
579 
267 

148 

65 

81 

236 

17 

56 

45 

41 

4 

I 

50 

7 

4 

2 

I 

4 

81 

None 

3 

23 

15 


2,085 


Taken  from  Board  of  Education,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  1921,  Forty-ninth  Annual  Report,  p.  61. 


Differences  in  achievements  as  well  as  differences  of  capac- 
ity must  be  taken  into  account  in  all  scientific  school  adjust- 
ment. These  differences  are  quite  as  apt  to  be  due  to  en- 
vironing conditions  as  to  native  endowment.  Many  pupils 
in  the  schools  have  undesirable  home  conditions  under  which 
to  do  their  work.  Probably  few  have  a  room  properly  heated, 
ventilated,  and  lighted,  adequate  desk  room  or  freedom  from 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  49 

disturbance.  Many  are  under  special  emotional  tension  be- 
cause of  straitened  pecuniary  circumstances,  sorrow  in  the 
family,  ill  treatment,  premature  love-affairs,  undue  social  life, 
real  or  imagined  ill  health,  and  a  great  variety  of  other  causes. 
All  of  these  factors  affect  the  working  capacity  of  the  pupil 
and  materially  influence  the  amount  and  quality  of  work 
accomplished.  The  wise  teacher  will  recognize  that  there  are 
influences  constantly  operative  in  affecting  results.  Before 
passing  judgment,  causes  and  motives  will  be  investigated. 
Fewer  cases  will  be  measured  by  inflexible  rules,  and  more 
and  more  will  Individual  cases  be  evaluated  on  their  merits. 

Various  studies  have  been  made  to  diagnose  the  causes  of 
variations  among  the  pupils  in  given  schools.  The  results  of 
such  a  study  are  Indicated  in  the  accompanying  table,  taken 
from  a  recent  Grand  Rapids  school  report. 

Adolescent  Variations. — While  differences  in  powers  and  in- 
terests manifest  themselves  from  the  beginnings  of  life,  they 
are  not  so  pronounced  up  to  the  age  of  12  to  14  as  they  become 
from  that  time  on.  During  the  period  in  the  elementary- 
school  grades  the  work  for  all  may  be  fairly  uniform  In  con- 
tent. Up  to  that  time  vocational  interests  have  not  been 
very  prominent.  With  the  onset  of  adolescence,  however,  the 
racial,  family,  and  sex  differences  begin  to  manifest  them- 
selves more  strongly  than  before.  The  occupational  interests 
also  begin  to  be  prominent,  probably  largely  due  to  social 
environment.  Because  of  all  these  conditions  much  more 
definite  recognition  of  individual  differences  and  needs  should 
be  accorded.  To  assist  in  this  process  the  junior  high  school 
has  been  established  in  many  places. 

How  Discover  Individual  Differences  ? — Even  very  ordi- 
nary everyday  observation  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  will 
serve  to  discover  many  obvious  differences  among  pupils.  It 
will  be  noted  that  some  are  keen,  alert,  and  attentive,  while 
others  are  slow,  plodding,  and  allow  their  attention  to  wander 
easily.  Differences  in  the  amount  of  general  Information  and 
in  the  accuracy  of  information  are  quite  easily  apparent  to 
the  general  observer.     Slipshod  speech,  Including  incorrect 


50    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

sentential  structure,  faulty  pronunciation,  and  indistinct  enun- 
ciation are  easily  detected  and  generally  suggestive  of  inaccu- 
rate knowledge  and  low-grade  scholarship.  Defective  eye- 
sight and  hearing  are  also  generally  easily  noted. 

The  examinations  and  tests  given  pupils  in  their  various 
studies  are  the  most  usual  means  of  discovering  differences. 
The  great  variations  in  examination  papers  noted  elsewhere 
reveal  these  differences  in  a  striking  and  often  most  unex- 
pected degree,  li  examinations  are  carefully  arranged  so  as 
to  take  account  of  time  and  conditions  of  preparation,  condi- 
tions in  the  manner  of  the  examination  itself,  and  types  of 
learning,  they  are  very  valuable  in  diagnosis.  The  daily  oral 
tests  are  also  suggestive  in  discovering  other  types  of  differ- 
ences. In  addition  to  the  usual  tests  in  subject-matter,  other 
tests  have  been  recently  devised  to  test  mental  ability  as  dis- 
tinguished from  information.  These  tests  are  discussed  under 
''Measuring  Mental  AbiHty." 

Ministration  to  Individual  Differences. — When  we  have 
studied  the  pupils  and  discovered  individual  differences  either 
in  native  ability  or  in  achievement,  what  should  be  done? 
Certainly  we  should  minister  to  the  needs  of  all  to  the  best 
possible  advantage.  The  following  are  a  few  of  the  ways  in 
which  rather  easy  adjustment  can  be  made. 

All  pupils  should  not  be  expected  to  carry  the  same  amount 
of  work.  Even  though  they  were  all  of  equal  ability,  the 
conditions  under  which  they  work  and  have  worked  are  so 
different  that  the  accomplishments  will  vary  greatly.  One 
boy  in  a  given  class  may  come  from  a  good  home  where  he  is 
provided  with  a  properly  heated,  lighted,  and  ventilated  room. 
He  may  have  access  to  a  good  library  of  books,  have  parents 
who  are  intelligent  and  interested  in  his  work,  and  who  give 
him  proper  stimulus  and  encouragement.  We  should  expect 
such  a  boy  to  have  his  work  prepared.  Another  boy  in  the 
same  class  may  come  from  a  home  of  poverty;  he  has  no  room 
to  himself,  his  studying  must  be  done,  if  at  all,  around  the 
kitchen  table  where  all  the  family  are  gathered.  He  may  have 
to  get  up  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  carry  papers  in 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  51 

order  to  be  one  of  the  wage-earners  for  family  maintenance. 
His  parents  may  lack  schooling  or  even  sympathy  with  edu- 
cation and  with  his  work.  May  we  rightly  expect  adequate 
results  from  such  a  boy  ? 

Doubtless  the  majority  of  pupils  in  a  given  grade  can  do 
the  regular  amount  of  work  in  that  grade  in  a  given  year. 
Some,  however,  can  do  from  a  quarter  to  a  third  more  than 
the  average,  and  should  be  given  an  opportunity  to  do  so. 
If  they  take  only  the  same  amount  as  the  average  pupils,  they 
will  waste  much  valuable  time.  Others,  from  lack  of  ability 
or  because  of  unfavorable  conditions,  cannot  do  nearly  as 
much  as  the  average  pupils.  They  should  be  allowed  to  go 
as  slow  as  necessary.  No  stigma  should  be  placed  upon  them 
for  their  slower  pace.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  they  may 
outstrip  their  fellows  at  a  later  time. 

Again  we  should  not  expect  the  same  standards  of  quality 
of  all.  The  uses  to  which  knowledge  is  to  be  put  should  often 
allow  of  varying  standards  of  proficiency.  To  illustrate,  a 
boy  who  is  certain  to  go  to  an  engineering  school  should  be 
held  for  more  mathematics  and  for  a  more  exacting  quality  in 
it  than  a  boy  or  girl  who  is  certain  to  have  little  need  for  it 
in  their  later  studies  or  in  everyday  life. 

Apart  from  the  knowledge  of  the  fundamentals  of  reading 
and  writing,  the  exact  knowledge  needed  in  later  study  or  in 
business  is  exceedingly  variable  for  different  individuals. 
Should  it  transpire  that  a  given  person  may  need  more  knowl- 
edge of  a  given  subject  for  purpose  of  higher  study  or  for 
business  uses,  the  particular  knowledge  can  be  acquired 
quickly  at  the  time  needed,  if  the  individual  has  adequate 
ability. 

The  school  should  give  opportunities  not  only  for  dull  and 
delinquent  children,  but  equally  for  precocious  and  earnest 
ones.  Not  only  are  there  many  subnormal  children  in  every 
school,  but  there  are  many  hypernormal — those  with  poten- 
tial qualities  which  only  await  development  to  make  them 
the  illustrious  of  their  time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  undue  pro- 
portions of  energy  and  time  are  given  to  the  lame  and  the  lazy. 


52     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Much  solicitude  is  given  to  finding  ways  and  means  of  help- 
ing the  slow,  while  little  thought  is  given  to  special  ways  of 
providing  for  those  who  can  easily  forge  ahead.  It  is  usually 
the  slow  pupil  who  is  given  most  of  the  time  in  recitation  (ex- 
cept when  visitors  are  present) ;  the  slow  one  who  is  kept  after 
school  to  be  helped;  the  slow  one  over  whose  papers  the 
teacher  burns  the  midnight  oil.  The  bright  one  recites 
quickly,  asks  few  time-consuming  questions,  easily  finds  occu- 
pation for  himself,  is  seldom  selected  for  extra  work,  and  is  a 
joy  forever  to  his  teacher.  But  how  frequently  he  becomes 
restive  because  of  the  lock-step  which  he  must  keep,  the  time 
consumed  with  the  slower,  and  the  consequent  narrowing  of 
instruction.  The  result  is  that  frequently  such  pupils  become 
dissatisfied — they  know  not  why — and  either  make  a  dash  for 
liberty,  become  chronic  sources  of  annoyance,  or  learn  to 
meekly  submit  and  become  dawdlers.  Doctor  Search  has 
shown  {An  Ideal  School,  p.  21)  that  children  often  drop  behind 
a  grade,  but  seldom  skip  one. 

The  opportunity  to  get  ahead  is  almost  always  limited  by  class 
environment.  Between  these  two  kinds  of  opportunity  there  is  an 
abysmal  difference.  As  schools  usually  go,  it  is  ten  times  harder  for 
a  pupil  to  gain  a  grade  than  to  lose  one;  ten  times  harder  to  rise  than 
to  fall.  Never  until  the  school  is  built  fundamentally  for  the  individ- 
ual will  this  element  of  loss  disappear. 

Doctor  Groszmann  urges  that  public  attention  be  directed 
to  all  types  of  exceptional  children,  not  merely  to  the  feeble- 
minded and  degenerate,  who,  no  matter  how  undesirable  a 
factor  they  may  be  in  society,  are  by  no  means  the  whole 
problem.  He  points  out  that  the  problem  of  the  exceptional 
:hild  is  by  no  means  merely  the  problem  of  the  defective,  or 
the  subnormal,  or  the  abnormal  child.  Often  it  is  a  case  of 
misdirected  ability  on  the  part  of  a  gifted  mind ;  or  the  prob- 
lem of  child  growth  and  development  as  affecting  criminal 
tendencies.  Sometimes  it  is  vocational  failure,  due  to  im- 
proper vocational  education;  or  it  may  be  a  problem  arising 
from  racial  differences,  together  with  the  difficulties  of  social 
adjustment  in  a  nation  which  has  grown  through  immigration. 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  53 

Doctor  Whipple  demonstrated  through  a  very  carefully- 
conducted  experiment  that  it  is  possible  to  select  pupils  from 
the  grades  who  are  able  to  do  two  years'  work  in  one  year. 
He  maintains  that  the  especially  gifted  who  might  attempt  a 
double  rate  of  progress  should  be  selected  through  expert  men- 
tal tests  rather  than  through  the  examination  grades  or 
through  the  general  estimates  of  teachers  or  superintendents. 
Classes  for  especially  highly  gifted  are  not  maintained  in  many 
places.  It  is  often  reported  that  they  are,  but  Whipple  found 
on  close  investigation  of  scores  of  cities  reported  to  be  main- 
taining them  that  not  one  really  had  one.  He  found  "that 
one  of  them  only  occasionally  promoted  individual  pupils; 
one  had  a  room  for  dull  but  never  for  bright  children;  one 
had  a  *  mixed '  room  for  both  dull  and  gifted  ( !) ;  and  two  gave 
individual  coaching  to  pupils  who  were  trying  for  special 
promotions."     {Classes  for  Gifted  Children^  p.  114.) 

Courtis  says  that  "the  supreme  thing  in  education  is  the 
fact  of  the  very  great  variation  in  the  abilities  and  needs  of 
individuals.  It  is  true  that  the  writer  urges  the  necessity  for 
the  measurement  of  .  .  .  the  entire  school,  but  it  is  also  true 
that  in  no  other  way  will  the  facts  of  individual  variation  and 
of  present  gross  inefficiency  be  revealed.  ...  At  the  present 
time  the  school  is  able  to  teach  only  those  fitted  by  nature  to 
respond  readily  to  its  teaching,  but  if  it  were  organized  to  de- 
tect and  minister  to  the  special  need  of  the  individual,  vastly 
more  could  be  accomplished.  Definite  aims,  i.  e.,  to  render 
every  child  in  the  eighth  grade  able  by  June  to  add  in 
four  minutes  thirty-five  examples,  each  a  single  column  of 
nine  figures — and  diagnostic  tests — i.  e.,  tests  that  will  enable 
a  teacher  to  determine  exactly  why  a  child  can  work  but 
twenty-three  such  examples  in  the  time  allowed — and  the 
experimental  determination  of  efficient  methods,  are  the 
lines  along  which  progress  will  be  made.  The  basic  factor  in 
education  is  thus  the  fact  of  individual  differences  in  natural 
ability,  and  the  supreme  problem  of  the  future  is  the  working 
out  of  administrative  methods  of  dealing  with  large  masses  of 
children,  yet  at  the  same  time  giving  to  each  child  the  special 


54    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

attention  and  the  special  courses  it  needs,  without  sacrificing 
the  benefits  of  class  work  and  group  instruction."  (Courtis, 
S.  A.,  "The  ReHabiHty  of  Single  Measurements  with  Standard 
Tests,"  Elem.  Sch.  Teacher,  13,  pp.  486-504.) 

Burbank,  the  botanical  wizard,  considers  differentiation  as 
absolutely  necessary  and  unavoidable.  He  says  ("The  Train- 
ing of  the  Human  Plant,"  Century,  72,  pp.  127-138): 

Right  here  let  me  lay  special  stress  upon  the  absurdity,  not  to  call 
it  by  a  harsher  term,  of  running  children  through  the  same  mill  in  a 
lot,  with  absolutely  no  real  reference  to  their  individuality.  No  two 
children  are  alike.  You  cannot  expect  them  to  develop  alike.  They 
are  different  in  temperament,  in  tastes,  in  disposition,  in  capabilities, 
and  yet  we  take  them  in  this  precious  early  age,  when  they  ought  to  be 
living  a  life  of  preparation  near  to  the  heart  of  nature,  and  we  stuff 
them,  cram  them,  and  overwork  them  until  their  poor  little  brains  are 
crowded  up  to  and  beyond  the  danger-line.  The  work  of  breaking 
down  the  nervous  systems  of  the  children  of  the  United  States  is  now 
well  under  way,  ...  It  is  imperative  that  we  consider  individuality 
in  children  in  their  training  precisely  as  we  do  in  cultivating  plants. 
Some  children,  for  example,  are  absolutely  unfit  by  nature  and  tem- 
perament for  carrying  on  certain  studies.  Take  certain  young  girls, 
for  example,  bright  in  many  ways,  but  unfitted  by  nature  and  bent, 
at  this  early  age  at  least,  for  the  study  of  arithmetic.  Very  early — ■ 
before  the  age  of  ten,  in  fact — they  are  packed  into  a  room  along  with 
from  thirty  to  fifty  others  and  compelled  to  study  a  branch  which,  at 
best,  they  should  not  undertake  until  they  have  reached  maturer  years. 
Can  one  by  any  possible  cultivation  and  selection  and  crossing  com- 
pel figs  to  grow  on  thistles  or  apples  on  a  banana- tree  ? 

School  Promotions. — In  the  primary  grades  a  large  portion 
of  the  time  should  be  devoted  to  studying  the  exact  status  of 
each  individual  in  the  class.  In  every  group  of  forty  first- 
grade  pupils  entering  in  September  there  are  ordinarily  10  per 
cent  who  do  not  need  to  remain  in  that  grade  a  month.  An- 
other 25  per  cent  could  be  promoted  or  at  least  should  be 
separated  from  the  rest  by  the  middle  of  the  year.  Another 
group  will  need  special  attention  and  will  not  be  ready  to  go 
on  even  at  the  end  of  the  year.  But  how  often  the  Septem- 
ber consignment  is  bunched  together,  once  for  all,  labelled, 
put  through  the  same  process,  pressed,  pushed,  pulled,  ground, 


INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES  55 

and  stretched,  until  they  appear  uniform,  and  are  ready  to  be 
ticketed  and  passed  on  to  the  next  grade  or  department. 
Thus  they  stay  together  except  as  death  or  disgust  separates 
them.  No  fact  of  modern  psychology  is  more  important  than 
that  there  are  countless  individual  differences  which  must  be 
recognized  in  all  good  teaching.  These  differences  must  be 
sought  and  individuals  ministered  to  accordingly. 

If  individual  differences  are  to  be  adequately  recognized, 
the  plan  of  promotion  must  be  flexible.  The  annual  promo- 
tion does  not  provide  a  sufficient  frequency  of  opportunity 
for  reclassification.  This  is  especially  true  if  pupils  are  pro- 
moted only  when  they  pass  in  all  of  the  subjects  of  the  grade. 
There  should  be  at  least  semiannual  occasions  for  the  redis- 
tribution of  pupils.  If  the  quarter  plan  of  organization  should 
come  into  vogue  in  the  public  schools  as  it  has  in  a  good  many 
universities,  it  would  afford  desirable  opportunities  for  needed 
readjustments. 

In  addition  to  the  periodical  opportunities  for  promotions, 
it  should  always  be  possible  to  promote  a  given  pupil  at  any 
time  when  it  is  discovered  that  the  pupil  could  profit  by  being 
moved  ahead.  It  should  not  be  necessary  for  a  pupil  to  pass 
in  all  subjects  in  order  to  be  promoted  in  a  given  subject.  He 
should  be  allowed  to  move  ahead  in  any  subject  as  fast  as 
possible  or  as  slowly  as  necessary.  The  subject  unit  system 
instead  of  the  entire  grade  should  prevail.  Of  course  it  may 
be  inconvenient  sometimes  to  promote  a  pupil  in  a  single  sub- 
ject only  because  of  administrative  difficulties.  But  what  if 
the  school  machinery  does  squeak  ?  The  school  should  fit  the 
needs  of  the  child  and  not  the  child  the  school. 

Differentiation  of  Curricula. — We  no  longer  require  all  pu- 
pils to  take  the  same  curriculum.  In  the  high  school  some 
take  the  classical  course,  some  the  modern-language  course, 
some  the  scientific  course,  some  a  business  course,  some  a 
manual-arts  course,  and  some  the  domestic-science  course. 
Even  within  these  courses  there  are  many  variations  so  that 
all  sorts  of  individual  differences  can  be  recognized  and  min- 
istered to.     Then  there  are  schools  for  the  blind,  the  deaf 


56    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

and  dumb,  for  cripples  and  for  feeble-minded.  Ideally  the 
curriculum  for  a  given  pupil  becomes  a  question  of  individual 
adjustment  for  that  particular  pupil.  Pupils  cannot  be  suc- 
cessfully educated  if  they  are  all  treated  alike  in  the  mass. 
Each  one  must  be  singled  out,  studied,  and  then  educated 
according  to  his  particular  capacities  and  needs. 

University  education  is  a  much  more  complex  problem  than 
it  used  to  be.  Formerly  all  in  a  given  college  took  the  same 
course,  the  course.  Now  there  are  colleges  within  the  uni- 
versity and  schools  within  the  colleges.  There  are  not  only 
opportunities  to  differentiate  so  one  may  study  law,  medicine, 
engineering,  forestry,  journalism,  fine  arts,  teaching,  agricul- 
ture, or  mining,  but  there  are  manifold  special  lines  within 
each.  For  example,  there  are  criminal  law  and  corporation 
law,  electrical  and  chemical  engineering,  horticulture  and 
stock-breeding  in  agriculture,  painting  and  music  in  fine  arts, 
high-school  teaching  and  kindergarten  work  in  teaching. 
When  the  particular  line  is  selected,  even  then  there  are  mani- 
fold paths  for  attaining  successful  goals  in  the  given  field. 

Dewey  says  {Schools  of  Tomorrow,  p.  137): 

A  truly  scientific  education  can  never  develop  so  long  as  children  are 
treated  in  the  lump,  merely  as  a  class.  Each  child  has  a  strong  indi- 
viduality, and  any  science  must  take  stock  of  all  the  facts  in  its  mate- 
rial. Every  pupil  must  have  a  chance  to  show  what  he  truly  is,  so 
that  the  teacher  can  find  out  what  he  needs  to  make  him  a  complete 
human  being.  Only  as  a  teacher  becomes  acquainted  with  each  one 
of  her  pupils  can  she  hope  to  understand  childhood,  and  it  is  only  as 
she  understands  it  that  she  can  hope  to  evolve  any  scheme  of  educa- 
tion which  shall  approach  either  the  scientific  or  the  artistic  standard. 
As  long  as  educators  do  not  know  their  individual  facts,  they  can 
never  know  whether  their  hypotheses  are  of  value.  But  how  are  they 
to  know  their  material  if  they  impose  themselves  upon  it  to  such  an 
extent  that  each  portion  is  made  to  act  just  like  every  other  portion? 
If  the  pupils  are  marched  into  line,  information  presented  to  them  which 
they  are  then  expected  to  give  back  in  uniform  fashion,  nothing  will 
ever  be  found  out  about  any  of  them.  But  if  every  pupil  has  an  op- 
portunity to  express  himself,  to  show  what  are  his  particular  qualities, 
the  teacher  will  have  material  on  which  to  base  her  plans  of  instruction. 

Since  a  child  lives  in  a  social  world,  where  even  the  simplest  act  or 


INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES  57 

word  is  bound  up  with  the  words  and  acts  of  his  neighbors,  there  is  no 
danger  that  this  liberty  will  sacrifice  the  interest  of  others  to  caprice. 
Liberty  does  not  mean  the  removal  of  the  checks  which  nature  and 
man  impose  on  the  life  of  every  individual  in  the  community,  so  that 
one  individual  may  indulge  impulses  which  go  against  his  own  welfare 
as  a  member  of  society.  But  liberty  for  the  child  is  the  chance  to  test 
all  impulses  and  tendencies  on  the  world  of  things  and  people  in  which 
he  finds  himself,  sufficiently  to  discover  their  character  so  that  he  may 
get  rid  of  those  which  are  harmful,  and  develop  those  which  are  useful 
to  himseK  and  others.  Education  which  treats  all  children  as  if  their 
impulses  were  those  of  the  average  of  an  adult  society  (whose  weak- 
nesses and  failures  are  moreover  constantly  deplored)  is  sure  to  go  on 
reproducing  that  same  average  society  without  even  finding  out  whether 
and  how  it  might  be  better.  Education  which  finds  out  what  children 
really  are  may  be  able  to  shape  itself  by  this  knowledge,  so  that  the 
best  can  be  kept  and  the  bad  eliminated.  Meantime  much  is  lost  by 
a  mere  external  suppression  of  the  bad  which  equally  prevents  the 
expression  of  the  better. 


SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Compare  in  age,  height,  and  weight  the  different  children  in  a  first 
grade.  2.  Compare  in  the  same  characteristics  the  seniors  in  a  high  school. 
3.  Compare  the  interests  of  a  group  of  first-grade  pupils.  4.  Compare  the 
range  of  grades  given  in  some  class  in  high  school.  5.  Have  a  set  of  ex- 
amination papers  marked  by  several  teachers.  Note  the  variations  in  the 
grades  assigned.  6.  Call  to  mind  some  pupil  who  is  strong  in  certain  sub- 
jects but  weak  in  others.  7.  If  a  pupil  is  strong  in  one  subject,  what  prob- 
ability is  there  that  he  will  be  strong  in  others?  8.  Should  all  pupils  pur- 
sue the  same  course  of  study?  9.  What  special  schools  are  there  in  your 
state  to  care  for  the  various  special  classes  of  children?  10.  Are  pupils 
more  apt  to  skip  grades  or  to  repeat  them?  11.  What  is  an  "opportunity 
school"  ?  12.  If  certain  pupils  are  sure  to  know  their  lessons,  what  should 
they  do  while  others  are  reciting?  13.  What  work  could  be  omitted  safely 
in  arithmetic  for  the  least-gifted  pupils?  14.  To  what  extent  should  elec- 
tives  be  allowed  in  (a)  the  grammar-school,  (b)  the  high  school,  (c)  in  an 
engineering  college?  15.  Should  specially  gifted  children  be  educated  in 
separate  schools? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XII. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  XIV. 

3.  Judd,  Introduction  to  the  Scientific  Study  of  Education,  chap.  XII. 

4.  Meriam,  Child  Life  and  the  Curriculum,  chap.  X. 

5.  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  chaps.  Ill,  IV,  V. 


58    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

6.  Terman,  The  Intelligence  of  School  Children,  chaps.  HI,  IV,  V,  VI. 

7.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  VI. 

8.  Thorndike,  Individuality.   Entire  book. 

9.  Strong,  Introductory  Psychology  for  Teachers,  lesson  24. 


CHAPTER  V 
NATIVE  ENDOWMENT:  HEREDITY 

All  have  heard  the  metaphor  comparing  the  child  to  a  piece 
of  clay  in  the  potter's  hands  to  be  moulded  at  the  will  of  the 
teacher.  Sometimes  the  figure  is  changed,  and  the  child  is 
compared  to  a  block  of  marble  and  the  teacher  to  the  artist 
who  is  to  chisel  out  whatever  likeness  he  may  conceive.  Now, 
in  reality  are  either  of  these  comparisons  psychologically  true  ? 
Is  the  child  a  piece  of  inert  material  that  can  be  moulded  or 
chiselled  as  we  will  ?  Suppose  we  should  decide  that  the 
blond  child  should  be  brunette,  that  the  short  child  should  be 
tall,  or  that  the  feeble-minded  should  be  normal.  Could  we 
effect  these  changes  regardless  of  the  inner  powers  and  poten- 
tialities of  the  real  child  ?  There  are  enthusiasts  who  seem  to 
believe  that  the  modifications  which  environment  may  pro- 
duce are  practically  unlimited.  But,  when  such  questions  as 
the  foregoing  are  raised,  such  claims  at  once  appear  absurd. 
It  is  recognized  at  once  that  there  are  norms  toward  which 
each  one  develops  simply  because  of  inner  tendencies  strug- 
gling to  assert  themselves.  This  is  not  to  minimize  the  influ- 
ence of  environment,  but  to  show  some  of  its  limitations. 
Education  is  in  part  a  process  of  unfoldment  or  development 
of  the  native  powers,  capacities,  and  potentialities  of  a  child. 
In  order  to  understand  just  what  these  inner  forces  mean  and 
what  power  they  possess,  it  will  be  desirable  to  study  some- 
thing of  the  subjects  of  heredity  and  instinct. 

Thorndike  says  ("Eugenics,  with  Special  Reference  to  In- 
tellect and  Character,"  Pop.Sci.  Mo.,  83,  pp.  125-138,  August, 
1913): 

Long  before  a  child  begins  his  schooling,  or  a  man  his  work  at  trade 
or  profession,  or  a  woman  her  management  of  a  home — long  indeed 
before  they  are  born — their  superiority  or  inferiority  to  others  of  the 

59 


6o 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


same  environmental  advantages  is  determined  by  the  constitution  of 
the  germs  and  ova  whence  they  spring,  and  which,  at  the  start  of  their 
individual  lives,  they  are. 

All  will  agree  that  what  any  individual  becomes  depends  (i) 
upon  his  initial  endowment,  and  (2)  upon  the  use  that  is  made 


HERITAGE 
THE  TRIANGLE  OF  LIFE 


of  these  powers  or  potentialities.  This  last  depends  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  upon  the  environment  by  which  the  individ- 
ual is  surrounded. 

Doctor  Walter  has  stated  the  matter  very  aptly  by  saying 
(Genetics:  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Heredity,  p.  13): 

Three  factors  determine  the  characteristics  of  an  individual,  namely, 
environment,  training,  and  heritage,  as  expressed  diagrammatically  in 
Fig.  I.  It  may  indeed  be  said  that  an  individual  is  the  result  of  the 
interaction  of  these  three  factors,  since  he  may  be  modified  by  chang- 
ing any  one  of  them.  Although  no  one  factor  can  possibly  be  omitted, 
the  student  of  genetics  places  the  emphasis  upon  heritage  as  the  factor 
of  greatest  importance.  Heritage,  or  "blood,"  expresses  the  innate 
equipment  of  the  individual.  It  is  what  he  actually  is  even  before 
birth.  It  is  his  nature.  It  is  what  determines  whether  he  shall  be  a 
beast  or  a  man.  Consequently  in  the  diagram  above  the  triangle  of 
life  is  represented  as  resting  solidly  upon  the  side  marked  "heritage" 
for  its  foundation. 

"Environment  and  training,  although  indispensable,  are 
both  factors  which  are  subsequent  and  secondary.     Environ- 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  6i 

ment  is  what  the  individual  has,  for  example,  housing,  food, 
friends,  and  enemies,  surrounding  aids  which  may  help  him 
and  obstacles  which  he  must  overcome.  It  is  the  particular 
world  into  which  he  comes,  the  measure  of  opportunity  given 
to  his  particular  heritage. 

"Training,  or  education,  on  the  other  hand,  represents  what 
the  individual  does  with  his  heritage  and  environment.  Lack- 
ing a  suitable  environment,  a  good  heritage  may  come  to 
naught,  like  good  seed  sown  upon  stony  ground,  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  the  best  environment  cannot  make  up 
for  defective  heritage  or  develop  wheat  from  tares. 

"  The  absence  of  sufficient  training  or  exercise  even  when  the 
environment  is  suitable  and  the  endowment  ...  is  ample 
will  result  in  an  individual  who  falls  short  of  his  possibilities, 
while  no  amount  of  education  can  develop  a  man  out  of  the 
heritage  of  a  beast.  Consequently  the  biologist  holds  that, 
although  what  an  individual  has  and  does  is  unquestionably 
of  great  importance,  particularly  to  the  individual  himself, 
what  he  is  is  far  more  important  in  the  long  run.  Improved 
environment  and  education  may  better  the  generation  already 
born.    Improved  blood  will  better  every  generation  to  come." 

Meaning  of  Heredity. — It  is  a  law  of  nature  that  the  de- 
scendants of  individuals  tend  to  be  like  their  ancestors. 
Every  one  knows  that  children  are  apt  to  look  like  their 
parents  or  near  relatives,  to  have  similar  dispositions,  and  to 
have  many  characteristics  common  to  the  family  group.  This 
law  of  transmission  and  reproduction  of  ancestral  traits  in 
descendants  is  termed  heredity.  President  David  Starr  Jor- 
dan says  {Animal  Life,  p.  88): 

There  is  something  inherent  in  each  developing  animal  that  gives 
it  an  identity  of  its  own.  Although  in  its  young  stages  it  may  be  in- 
distinguishable from  some  other  kind  of  animal  in  similar  stages,  it  is 
sure  to  come  out,  when  fully  developed,  an  individual  of  the  same  kind 
as  its  parents  were  or  are.  The  young  fish  and  the  young  salamander 
.  .  .  are  indistinguishably  alike,  but  one  embryo  is  sure  to  develop  into 
a  fish  and  the  other  into  a  salamander.  This  certainty  of  an  embryo  to 
become  an  individual  of  a  certain  kind  is  called  the  law  of  heredity. 


62     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

This  is  the  great  conservative  force  in  nature.  Through 
heredity  evolution  is  made  possible,  since  variations  once 
established  tend  to  be  transmitted  to  posterity. 

Physical  Heredity. — Heredity  of  physical  structure  is  every- 
where apparent  among  human  beings.  It  may  manifest  itself 
in  stature,  weight,  length  of  limbs,  color  of  eyes  or  hair,  facial 
features,  or  expression.  Children  are  often  said  to  be  exact 
images  of  father,  mother,  or  grandparents.  Among  animals 
resemblances  of  young  to  parents  are  equally  striking.  The 
same  laws  are  observable  in  plants.  It  may  be  safely  pre- 
dicted that  a  grain  of  corn  or  any  other  plant  seed  will  pro- 
duce under  ordinary  conditions  a  new  plant  of  the  same  kind 
and  of  similar  size,  form,  and  color  as  that  which  bore  the 
seed.  The  facts  are  all  too  obvious  to  need  more  than  sug- 
gestion. Internal  structures  as  well  as  external  are  governed 
by  the  laws  of  heredity.  The  various  proportions  of  the 
cranium,  thorax,  vertebrae,  teeth,  the  peculiarities  of  the  cir- 
culatory system  and  the  nervous  system,  which  are  manifest 
in  a  given  individual,  will  probably  be  found  upon  investiga- 
tion to  be  characteristics  common  to  his  ancestry  and  his 
posterity.  Ribot  tells  us  that  "there  are  some  families  in 
which  the  heart  and  principal  blood-vessels  are  naturally 
very  large;  others  which  present  identical  faults  of  conforma- 
tion." The  nervous  system,  especially  the  brain,  seems  to 
follow  a  certain  type  in  a  given  family  or  "line  of  ascent." 
Length  of  natural  life  is  doubtless  an  ancestral  bequest.  In  a 
family  where  there  is  a  centenarian  there  is  almost  sure  to  be 
a  number  who  live  to  a  very  old  age,  exceeding  their  allotted 
"threescore  and  ten."  Ribot  writes  that  "longevity  depends 
far  less  on  race,  climate,  profession,  mode  of  life,  or  food  than 
on  hereditary  transmission."     (Ribot,  Heredity,  pp.  3  and  5.) 

Thomson  says  that  "not  less  striking  than  the  long  per- 
sistence of  specific  and  stock  characters  is  the  fact  that  off- 
spring frequently  reproduce  the  individual  peculiarities — 
both  normal  and  abnormal — of  their  parents  or  ancestors.  A 
slight  structural  peculiarity,  such  as  a  lock  of  white  hair  or 
an  extra  digit,  may  persist  for  several  generations.     A  slight 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  63 

functional  peculiarity,  such  as  left-handedness,  has  been  re- 
corded for  at  least  four  generations,  and  color-blindness  for 
five."     (J.  Arthur  Thomson,  Heredity,  p.  70.) 

Conklin  says  ("Phenomena  of  Inheritance,"  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  October,  1914,  p.  314): 

All  peculiarities  which  are  characteristic  of  a  race,  species,  genus, 
order,  class,  and  phylum  are  of  course  inherited,  otherwise  there  would 
be  no  constant  characteristics  of  these  groups  and  no  possibility  of 
classifying  organisms.  The  chief  characters  of  every  living  thing  are 
unalterably  fixed  by  heredity.  Men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns 
nor  figs  of  thistles.  Every  living  thing  produces  offspring  after  its  own 
kind.  Men,  horses,  cattle;  birds,  reptiles,  fishes;  insects,  moUusks, 
worms;  polyps,  sponges,  micro-organisms — all  of  the  million  known 
species  of  animals  and  plants  differ  from  one  another  because  of  in- 
herited peculiarities — because  they  have  come  from  different  kinds  of 
germ-cells. 

Mental  Heredity. — Ribot  makes  an  Interesting  and  exhaus- 
tive study  of  the  heredity  of  various  psychological  powers,  in- 
cluding memory,  Imagination,  the  will,  Instinct,  the  senti- 
ments and  passions.  He  shows  that  memory  is  Indeed  merely 
a  disposition  of  nervous  tissue  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the 
mind  on  the  other,  to  act  again  in  a  way  In  which  they  once 
have  acted.  Memory  is  a  dynamic  relation  existing  among 
various  types  of  dynamic  possibilities.  A  given  type,  he  be- 
lieves, is  apt  to  be  characteristic  of  the  various  members  of  a 
family.     He  mentions  several  cases  to  support  his  view: 

The  two  Senecas  were  famed  for  their  memory  .  .  .  Marcus  Annaeus 
could  repeat  2,000  words  in  the  order  in  which  he  heard  them;  the  son, 
Lucius  Annaeus,  was  also,  though  less  highly,  gifted  in  this  respect. 
According  to  Galton,  in  the  family  of  Richard  Porson,  one  of  the  Eng- 
lishmen most  distinguished  as  a  Greek  scholar,  this  faculty  was  so 
extraordinary  as  to  become  proverbial — the  Porson  memory.  (Ribot, 
Heredity,  p.  53.) 

Families  are  often  renowned  for  their  special  types  of 
imagination.  Among  painters  It  Is  not  at  all  uncommon  to 
find  several  generations  of  especially  gifted  artists.  In  the 
family  of  Titian  were  nine  painters  of  great  merit.     Cagliari 


64    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

had  several  relatives  who  were  nearly  as  illustrious  as  him- 
self. A  catalogue  of  names  of  painters  who  have  belonged  to 
families  celebrated  for  their  artistic  genius  must  contain  such 
names  as  Rafael,  Van  Dyck,  Murillo,  and  Claude  Lorrain. 
Ribot  says: 

A  glance  at  any  history  of  painting,  or  a  visit  to  a  few  museums,  will 
show  that  families  of  painters  are  not  rare.  In  England  you  have  the 
Landseers;  in  France  the  Bonheurs.  Every  one  has  heard  of  the 
Bellinis,  Caraccios,  Teniers,  Van  Ostades,  Mieris,  Van  der  Veldes.  In 
a  list  of  forty-two  painters — Italian,  Spanish,  and  Flemish — held  to  be 
of  the  highest  rank,  Galton  found  twenty-one  that  had  illustrious 
relatives.     {Ibid.,  p.  60.) 

Another  type  of  imagination  which  can  be  easily  studied  for 
hereditary  tendencies  is  the  musical  type.  Sebastian  Bach 
was  the  greatest  of  an  extraordinarily  gifted  family  of  musi- 
cians. The  family  began  in  1550,  and  was  illustrious  through 
at  least  eight  generations.  Beginning  with  Weit  Bach,  the 
Presburg  baker,  we  have  a  record  of  an  ''unbroken  line  of 
musicians  of  the  same  name  that  for  nearly  two  centuries  over- 
ran Thuringia,  Saxony,  and  Franconia."  In  the  family  there 
were  twenty-nine  eminent  musicians.  The  names  of  Beetho- 
ven, Mendelssohn,  Mozart,  and  Haydn  all  represent  families 
famed  for  their  musical  abilities. 

Conklin  writes  (loc.  cit.)  that: 

Psychological  characters  appear  to  be  inherited  in  the  same  way  that 
anatomical  and  physiological  traits  are;  indeed  all  that  has  been  said 
regarding  the  correlation  of  morphological  and  physiological  characters 
applies  also  to  psychological  ones.  No  one  doubts  that  particular  in- 
stincts, aptitudes,  and  capacities  are  inherited  among  both  animals 
and  men  nor  that  different  races  and  species  differ  hereditarily  in  psy- 
chological characteristics.  Certain  breeds  of  dogs,  such  as  the  mastiff, 
the  bulldog,  the  terrier,  the  collie,  and  many  others,  are  characterized 
by  peculiarities  of  temperament,  affection,  intelligence,  and  disposi- 
tion. No  one  who  has  much  studied  the  subject  can  doubt  that  differ- 
ent human  races  and  families  show  characteristic  differences  in  these 
same  respects.  It  is  quite  futile  to  argue  that  exceptional  individuals 
may  be  found  in  one  race  with  the  mental  characteristics  of  another 
race;  the  same  could  be  said  of  different  races  of  dogs,  or  of  the  sizes 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  65 

of  different  races  of  beans  or  of  paramecia.  The  fact  is  that  racial 
characteristics  are  not  determined  by  exceptional  and  extreme  individ- 
uals but  by  the  average  or  mean  qualities  of  the  race;  and  measured  in 
this  way  there  is  no  doubt  that  certain  types  of  mind  and  disposition 
are  characteristic  of  certain  families. 

Conklin  bears  further  testimony  on  this  point  when  he  says : 

There  is  no  longer  any  question  that  some  kinds  of  feeble-minded- 
ness,  epilepsy,  and  insanity  are  inherited,  and  that  there  is  often  a 
hereditary  basis  for  nervous  and  phlegmatic  temperaments,  for  emo- 
tional, judicial,  and  calculating  dispositions.  Nor  can  it  be  denied 
that  strength  or  weakness  of  will,  a  tendency  to  moral  obliquity  or 
rectitude,  capacity  or  incapacity  for  the  highest  intellectual  pursuits, 
occur  frequently  in  certain  families  and  appear  to  be  inherited.  In 
spite  of  certain  noteworthy  exceptions,  which  may  perhaps  be  due  to 
remarkable  variations,  statistics  collected  by  Galton  show  that  genius 
is  hereditary;  while  the  work  of  certain  recent  investigators,  particu- 
larly Goddard,  Davenport,  and  Weeks,  proves  that  feeble-mindedness 
and  epilepsy  are  also  inherited;  and  the  careful  work  of  Mott  and  of 
Rosanoff  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  that  certain  types  of  insanity  are 
hereditary.  It  frequently  happens  that  families  in  which  hereditary 
insanity  occurs  also  have  other  members  afflicted  with  epilepsy,  hys- 
teria, alcoholism,  etc.,  which  would  indicate  that  the  thing  inherited 
is  an  unstable  condition  of  the  nervous  system  which  may  take  various 
forms  under  slightly  different  conditions.  Woods  has  collected  data 
concerning  "Heredity  in  Royalty"  which  seem  to  show  that  very  high 
or  low  grades  of  intellect  and  virtues  may  be  traced  through  the  royal 
families  of  Europe  for  several  generations. 

History  of  the  Juke  Family. — In  1877  R.  Dugdale  published 
in  the  Thirtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Prison  Com- 
mission a  study  of  the  so-called  Juke  family.  Juke  is  a  name 
given  to  a  large  family  of  degenerates.  It  is  not  the  real  name 
of  the  family,  but  a  general  term  applied  to  forty-two  differ- 
ent families  whose  ancestry  could  be  traced  to  one  particular 
man.  The  father  of  the  Juke  family,  Dugdale  termed  Max. 
He  was  of  Dutch  stock,  born  about  1720.  He  was  shiftless, 
played  truant,  and  was  a  general  vagabond.  He  married  a 
woman  as  worthless  as  himself.  They  reared  a  family  of 
vagabonds,  and  these  children  in  due  time  Intermarried  with 
other  vagabonds.     In  1877,  in  five  generations,  there  were  540 


66    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

direct  descendants  and  about  700  of  more  distant  relation; 
300  of  the  1,200  were  professional  paupers,  7  were  murderers, 
60  were  habitual  thieves,  130  were  criminals  who  were  fre- 
quently convicted  of  crime,  300  died  in  infancy,  while  400 
were  physically  degenerate.  Only  20  of  the  1,200  learned  a 
trade,  and  10  of  those  learned  it  in  a  state  prison.  They  had 
cost  the  State  of  New  York  $1,000  apiece,  including  all  men, 
women,  and  children;  a  total  of  $1,250,000. 

History  of  Jonathan  Edwards's  Family. — In  1898  Doctor 
A.  E.  Winship,  who  had  made  a  study  of  the  Jukes,  deter- 
mined to  make  a  study  of  some  desirable  family  to  offset 
the  appalling  record  of  the  Jukes.  He  selected  for  his  study 
Jonathan  Edwards,  who  was  born  October  5,  1703.  While 
Max  Juke  was  the  founder  of  a  family  of  1,200,  mostly 
paupers  and  criminals,  he  found  that  Jonathan  Edwards  was 
the  founder  of  a  family  of  1,400  of  the  world's  noblemen, 
most  of  whom  have  left  the  world  better  for  having  lived  in 
it.  It  is  possible  here  to  cite  only  a  few  of  the  illustrious  de- 
scendants of  Jonathan  Edwards.  In  Yale  alone  there  have 
been  more  than  120  graduates  who  were  direct  descendants; 
among  these  are  nearly  20  Dwights,  as  many  by  the  name  of 
Edwards,  7  Woolseys,  8  Porters,  5  Johnsons,  and  several  of 
most  of  the  following  names:  Chapin,  Winthrop,  Shoemaker, 
Hadley,  Lewis,  Mather,  Reeve,  Rowland,  Carmalt,  Dev- 
ereaux,  Weston,  Heermance,  Whitney,  Blake,  Collier,  Scar- 
borough, Yardley,  Gilman,  Raymond,  Wood,  Morgan,  Bacon, 
Ward,  Foote,  Cornelius,  Shepard,  Bristow,  Wickersham, 
Doubleday,  Van  Valkenberg,  Robbins,  Tyler,  Miller,  Lyman, 
Pierpont.  Mr.  Churchill,  author  of  Richard  Carvel,  is  a  recent 
graduate.  In  Amherst  there  were  at  one  time  of  this  family, 
President  Gates  and  Professors  Mather,  Tyler,  and  Todd. 
There  is  not  a  leading  college  in  the  country  in  which  their 
names  are  not  to  be  found  recorded.  They  have  not  only  fur- 
nished thirteen  college  presidents  and  one  hundred  or  more 
professors,  but  they  have  founded  many  important  academies 
and  seminaries  in  New  Haven  and  Brooklyn,  all  through 
the  New  England  States,  and  in  the  Middle,  Western,  and 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:    HEREDITY  67 

Southern  States.  Not  only  have  they  furnished  scholars,  but 
statesmen,  lawyers,  financiers,  and  other  men  and  women  of 
high  rank  in  practically  every  walk  of  life.  One  hundred 
and  thirty-five  books  of  merit  have  been  written  by  the 
family,  eighteen  journals  and  periodicals  of  large  importance 
have  been  edited  by  them,  and  several  of  them  founded  by 
members  of  the  family.  Several  descendants  have  been 
among  the  most  illustrious  men  of  their  time.  Examples  of 
these  are  President  Timothy  Dwight,  President  Theodore 
Dwight  Woolsey,  Doctor  Theodore  W.  Dwight,  president  of 
Columbia  College  Law  School,  and  Daniel  Colt  Gilman.  The 
only  notable  black  sheep  in  the  family  was  Aaron  Burr,  Ed- 
wards's grandson,  and  there  is  no  question  that  he  possessed 
great  mental  acumen.  But  for  a  single  unfortunate  charac- 
teristic and  the  custom  of  the  time,  which  allowed  this  trait 
to  go  unchecked,  Burr  might  have  been  one  of  the  great  in- 
stead of  being  numbered  among  the  dishonored.  At  forty- 
nine  he  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  most  admired,  and  most 
beloved  men  in  the  United  States.  For  thirty  years  his  career 
had  few  American  parallels. 

Perhaps  some  one  may  contend  that  the  foregoing  shows 
the  result  of  environment  rather  than  hereditary  tendencies. 
The  rejoinder  should  be  made  that  the  environment  in  a  large 
way  was  practically  the  same  for  the  Juke  family  as  for  the 
Edwards.  The  periods  are  synchronous  and  there  was  no 
great  difference  between  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  It 
could  have  been  no  chance  condition  of  environment  which 
made  nearly  all  of  one  family  differ  from  all  of  the  other.  If 
environment  were  really  so  potent  as  many  claim,  the  same- 
ness of  environment  should  have  brought  the  two  families  as 
a  whole  to  the  same  level. 

"The  Kallikak  Family." — Of  still  greater  significance  is  a 
more  recent  study  by  Goddard,  The  Kallikak  Family.  Martin 
"Kallikak"  having  been  married  twice  and  having  reared  two 
families  with  different  mothers  makes  it  possible  to  check 
more  definitely  the  role  of  heredity  and  of  environment.  The 
family  descended  from  the  first  wife,  a  feeble-minded  woman, 


68    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

is  a  duplicate  of  the  Juke  family.  The  descendants  by  the 
second  wife,  a  woman  of  normal  intelligence,  included  few  de- 
generates or  criminals.  The  majority  were  respectable  citi- 
zens, among  them  doctors,  lawyers,  judges,  educators,  and 
business  men. 

It  is  not  argued  that  environment  has  no  effect  in  deter- 
mining the  ultimate  development  of  individuals.  The  effects 
are  very  consequential.  One  who  disbelieves  in  them  should 
not  remain  in  the  ranks  of  educators.  But  there  are  very 
definite  limits  beyond  which  environment  exercises  no  con- 
trol. No  amount  of  feeding  could  make  a  mastiff  of  a  poodle. 
No  amount  of  underfeeding  could  limit  the  growth  of  a  mastiff 
to  the  size  of  the  poodle.  Similarly  no  amount  of  training 
could  make  a  Shakespeare  of  an  idiot.  Shakespeare,  even 
though  untrained,  would  have  been  a  marked  man.  We  must 
keep  in  mind  a  distinction  between  great  mental  power  and 
reputation;  between  ability  and  success.  Obscurity  is  not  a 
necessary  correlate  of  weakness.  Many  intellectual  giants 
have  been  obscure.  A  distinction  must  also  be  made  between 
biological  and  social  heredity;  between  intellectual  power  and 
the  use  to  which  one  puts  this  power.  Biological  heredity  de- 
termines largely  what  mental  capacity  shall  be,  but  social 
heredity  and  environment  determine  what  use  shall  be  made 
of  physical  and  intellectual  powers.  Morality  is  much  more 
influenced  by  environment  than  is  intellectual  strength. 
Whether  one  makes  locks  or  picks  them  depends  largely  on 
one's  environment,  but  the  capacity  to  do  either  is  a  matter 
of  native  endowment. 

Hereditary  Disease  Tendencies. — While  specific  diseases  as 
such  are  probably  not  directly  inheritable,  it  is  none  the  less 
true  that  tendencies  to  disease  are  very  definitely  inherited. 
**The  process,"  says  Thomson,  "is  not  transmitted,  but  the 
potentiality  of  it  is  involved  in  some  peculiarity  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  germ-plasm."  The  same  authority  writes  that 
**  there  are  endless  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  a  pathological 
diathecis — rheumatic,  gouty,  neurotic,  or  the  like — may  per- 
sist and  express  itself  similarly,  even  in  spite  of  altered  con- 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  69 

ditions  of  life,  throughout  many  generations."  {Op.  cit.,  p. 
70.)  While  germ  diseases  are  not  directly  heritable,  it  should 
not  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  children  of  parents  af- 
flicted with  such  diseases  as  tuberculosis  are  no  more  liable 
to  it  than  are  children  of  parents  entirely  free  from  it.  In  a 
strict  biological  sense  the  disease  is  not  transmitted,  but 
the  devitalized  constitution  giving  a  predisposition  is  herit- 
able. 

Good  and  poor  eyesight  are  family  characteristics.  Con- 
genital blindness  sometimes  occurs  in  several  generations  of 
the  same  family.  In  one  family  thirty-seven  children  and 
grandchildren  became  blind  between  their  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  years.  Of  another  family,  a  father  and  his  four 
children  all  became  blind  at  the  age  of  21.  ''Color-blind- 
ness," says  Ribot,  "is  notoriously  hereditary.  The  distin- 
guished English  chemist,  Dal  ton,  was  so  affected,  as  were 
also  two  of  his  brothers.  Sedgwick  discovered  that  color- 
bUndness  occurs  oftener  in  men  than  in  women."  Darwin 
wrote  {Variation  of  Plants,  II,  p.  70):  "Myopia  is  said  to 
be  becoming  hereditary  among  certain  civilized  nations,  espe- 
cially the  Germans."  Particular  types  of  hearing  are  doubt- 
less hereditary.  Although  the  offspring  of  a  deaf-mute  and  a 
person  of  sound  hearing  are  seldom  deaf,  yet  where  both 
parents  are  mute  their  children  are  apt  to  be  deaf  or  to  be 
afflicted  with  some  kindred  disease.  In  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Institution  in  London:  "Among  148  pupils  in  the  institution 
at  one  time,  there  was  one  in  whose  family  were  5  deaf-mutes; 
another  in  whose  family  were  4.  In  the  families  of  1 1  of  the 
pupils  there  were  3  each;  and  in  the  families  of  19,  2  each." 
(Ribot,  op.  cit.,  p.  42.)  "The  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  deaf 
are  deaf  in  245  cases  in  1,000.  The  child  of  deaf  parents  is 
259  times  as  likely  to  be  deaf  as  if  its  parents  were  normal." 
(Fay,  Marriage  of  the  Deaf  in  America,  p.  49.)  "Out  of  901 
admissions  to  an  asylum,  477  had  insane  relatives;  out  of  321 
cases  of  epilepsy,  105  had  a  family  taint  (about  35  per  cent); 
out  of  208  cases  of  hysteria,  165  had  a  family  taint  (about  80 
per  cent).     Various  specialists  on  mental  disorders  have  found 


70    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

reason  to  believe  in  hereditary  transmission  in  from  25  to  85 
per  cent  of  their  patients,  the  diversity  being  doubtless  in 
part  due  to  the  great  variety  of  nervous  diseases."  (Thomson, 
Heredity,  p.  294.) 

Because  a  specific  disease  afflicting  a  parent  does  not  reap- 
pear in  the  children,  the  belief  in  heredity  is  often  weakened. 
But  as  the  lowered  vitality  rather  than  the  specific  disease  is 
inherited,  a  variety  of  kindred  diseases  may  appear  in  succes- 
sive generations  of  the  same  family.  There  are  many  diseases 
which  are  closely  related  because  they  develop  as  a  result  of 
a  devitalized  system.  Among  such  are  tuberculosis,  scrofula, 
and  many  glandular  and  skin  diseases.  The  specific  disease 
may  be  pulmonary  consumption,  scrofulous  tumor,  or  cancer. 
There  is  a  whole  train  of  afflictions  akin  to  deaf-mutism. 
Congenital  deaf-mutes  are  usually  defective  in  mind  and  body. 
Ordinary  deaf-mutism  is  closely  allied  to  idiocy,  and  is  one  of 
the  hereditary  neuroses.  "In  the  family  of  the  deaf-mute, 
inquiry  will  frequently  discover  idiotic,  epileptic,  blind,  or 
scrofulous  brothers  and  sisters;  dipsomania,  insanity,  epilepsy, 
phthisis,  or  imbecility  in  the  parents  or  earlier  ancestors,  and 
like  conditions  in  collateral  branches  of  the  family.  .  .  . 
Occasionally  a  whole  family  is  found  deaf  and  dumb."  In- 
sanity is  almost  inseparably  connected  with  neurotic  degen- 
eracy, and,  according  to  Sachs,  "Heredity  is  the  potent  fac- 
tor in  the  causation  of  juvenile  and  adult  insanity."  {Ner- 
vous Diseases  of  Children,  p.  610.) 

Life-insurance  companies  place  the  utmost  confidence  in 
heredity.  They  make  the  most  searching  inquiries  concern- 
ing the  health  of  ancestry  and  relatives.  Many  a  person  is 
rejected  solely  on  grounds  of  hereditary  taints,  even  though 
he  may  be  apparently  a  perfect  risk.  Insanity  and  suicidal 
tendencies  are  regarded  with  extreme  suspicion.  Diseases  fre- 
quently and  degeneracy  always  have  a  family  history.  In 
discussing  the  question  frequently  only  the  immediate  parents 
are  considered,  when  the  whole  complex  of  ancestral  bequests 
must  be  taken  into  account. 

Conklin  says  {loc.  cit.) : 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  71 

If  a  disease  is  due  to  some  defect  in  the  hereditary  constitution,  it  is 
inherited;  otherwise,  according  to  our  definition  of  heredity,  it  is  not. 
Of  course  no  disease  develops  without  extrinsic  causes,  but  when  one 
individual  takes  a  disease  while  another  under  the  same  conditions 
does  not,  the  differential  cause  may  be  an  inherited  one,  or  it  may  be 
due  to  differences  in  the  previous  conditions  of  life.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  certain  diseases  run  in  families  and  have  the  appearance  of  being 
inherited,  but  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  it  is  extremely  difficult 
in  the  absence  of  experiments  to  distinguish  between  effects  due  to 
intrinsic  causes  and  those  due  to  extrinsic  ones 

Recent  Experimental  Evidence. — Professor  Vernon  Kellogg, 
of  Stanford  University,  experimented  with  silkworms  to  study 
the  influence  of  heredity  and  of  environment.  By  giving  three 
groups  of  silkworms  of  the  same  qualities  as  nearly  as  possible 
different  rations  of  mulberry  leaves,  there  resulted  "big  moths, 
middle-sized  moths,  and  dwarf  moths."  By  feeding  three 
other  groups  of  different  ancestry  exactly  the  same  rations  it 
was  impossible  to  make  them  develop  similarly.  The  experi- 
ments show  that  environment  may  exert  a  tremendous  influ- 
ence, developing  inherent  potentialities,  yet  no  possible  com- 
bination of  environmental  circumstances  can  overcome  the 
profound  influences  of  heredity. 

"The  facts  of  Mendelian  inheritance  and  their  explana- 
tion have  carried  us  a  long  way  in  our  attempts  to  reach  the 
goal  of  being  able  to  prophesy,  with  a  high  degree  of  confi- 
dence, what  will  be  the  specific  hereditary  outcomes  of  mat- 
ings  of  plants  and  animals  and  men  in  which  contrasting 
specific  traits  are  involved.  The  principles  and  the  mech- 
anism of  Mendelian  inheritance  are  well  determined.  But  the 
behavior  of  each  trait  has  to  be  worked  out  for  each  species 
of  plant  or  animal,  or  for  man."  (Vernon  Kellogg,  "The  New 
Heredity,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1922,  p.  584.) 

Relation  to  **  Intelligence  Quotient." — The  recent  world- 
wide movement  in  intelligence  testing  started  by  Binet  about 
1905  Is  really  a  study  in  hereditary  individual  differences  in 
children.  It  is  an  attempt  to  find  out  in  a  definite  quantita- 
tive way  just  how  children  differ  in  native  ability  from  given 
standards  of  intelligence.     So  much  progress  has  been  made 


72     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

that  students  can  be  and  are  much  better  classified  than  be- 
fore methods  of  measuring  were  estabHshed.  A  Httle  progress 
has  also  been  made  in  measuring  definitely  the  different  types 
of  hereditary  ability.  Schools  for  backward  children  lacking 
in  a  normal  amount  of  hereditary  ability  have  been  established 
for  some  time.  More  recently  schools  for  especially  gifted 
children  have  been  established  here  and  there. 

Thus,  while  teachers  should  say  little  about  hereditary  dif- 
ferences in  school  children,  they  need  to  know  the  laws  of 
heredity  and  the  means  of  discovering  hereditary  aptitudes 
and  limitations.  The  science  of  classification  in  schools  is 
based  mainly  upon  such  knowledge.  Society  needs  to  realize 
the  great  laws  of  heredity  and  also  how  to  utilize  environment 
to  develop  hereditary  potentialities  to  the  greatest  possible 
maximum. 

Summarized  Conclusion. — "The  general  trend  of  all  recent 
work  on  heredity  is  unmistakable,  whether  it  concerns  man  or 
lower  animals.  The  entire  organism,  consisting  of  structures 
and  functions,  body  and  mind,  develops  out  of  the  germ,  and 
the  organization  of  the  germ  determines  all  the  possibilities  of 
development  of  the  mind  no  less  than  of  the  body,  though  the 
actual  realization  of  any  possibility  is  dependent  also  upon 
environmental  stimuli."     (Conkhn,  Joe.  cit.,  p.  319.) 

"However  one  may  choose  to  take  sides  on  the  question  as 
to  whether  heredity  or  environment  is  the  more  important,  it 
must  be  agreed  that  the  fundamental  basis  of  all  human  effi- 
ciency is  to  be  found  In  the  physical  and  mental  constitution 
which  is  given  to  one  as  a  legacy  by  his  ancestors.  We  start 
with  an  inheritance  good  or  bad,  and  upon  this  basis  our  suc- 
cess or  failure  must  be  established."  (HoUingworth  and  Pof- 
fenberger.  Applied  Psychology,  1917,  p.  21.) 

To  set  forth  the  influence  of  heredity  is  not  an  attempt  to 
minimize  the  effects  of  environment.  Each  plays  a  part  in 
the  development  of  every  individual.  To  ask  which  is  the 
more  important  is  like  asking  "Which  is  more  important  in 
sustaining  life,  oxygen  or  nitrogen?"  Life  could  not  exist 
without  both.     This  chapter  is  simply  an  attempt  to  analyze 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  73 

properly  the  influence  of  heredity.  Sometimes  the  superficial 
sociologist  asserts  that  simply  by  making  the  environment  of 
all  people  alike  would  eradicate  all  individual  differences.  He 
overlooks  the  fact  that  some  people  create  their  own  environ- 
ment to  a  much  more  marked  degree  than  others.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  superficial  believer  in  the  all-powerful  force  of 
heredity  preaches  a  doctrine  of  fatalism. 

Educational  Bearings. — A  knowledge  of  heredity  is  of  great 
value  in  education.  It  does  not  mean  that  the  teacher  must 
necessarily  study  the  ancestors  of  the  pupil,  but  it  does  mean 
that  the  teacher  should  study  with  the  greatest  possible  care 
the  potentialities  of  each  pupil.  The  main  thing  the  teacher 
can  do  is  to  develop  the  capabilities  which  the  pupi<l  possesses. 
Too  often  the  teacher  spends  most  of  the  time  in  trying  to 
get  the  pupil  to  do  things  in  directions  in  which  he  possesses 
little  or  no  capability,  and  in  so  doing  overlooks  wonderful 
latent  abilities.  A  study  of  heredity  must  impress  one  with 
the  fact  that  great  individual  differences  exist  among  pupils. 
No  two  are  alike  and  can  never  be  made  alike,  no  matter  what 
influences  are  brought  to  bear.  Applications  of  some  of  the 
foregoing  facts  are  considered  in  the  chapters  on  "Instinct," 
"Individual  Differences,"  "Measuring  Intelligence,"  "Pre- 
dicting Performance,"  and  "Psychology  in  Vocational  Gui- 
dance." 

One  of  the  most  fundamental  problems  of  education  is 
to  determine  what  the  child  knows  or  has  at  command  as 
capital.  This  capital  may  have  been  bequeathed  him  by  his 
ancestors  as  an  hereditary  endowment  or  it  may  be  due  to 
postnatal  acquisition.  In  either  case  the  teacher  should  know 
what — if  she  can  know  the  whence  so  much  the  better.  But 
to  save  precious  time  she  must  know  what  funds  of  knowledge 
given  children  have;  and  any  studies  which  point  out  tenden- 
cies in  groups  will  enable  the  teacher  the  better  to  deal  in 
probabilities  concerning  individuals.  This  is  scientific,  for 
science  is  that  which  enables  us  to  interpret  facts  through  all 
other  facts  of  a  kindred  nature.  Science  endows  one  with  the 
gift  of  prophecy;  the  scientist  is  a  prophet. 


74    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Lest  there  might  be  some  misapprehension,  it  is  distinctly 
asserted  here  that  there  is  no  thought  of  assuming  that  hered- 
ity gives  any  poHtical  rights.  It  is  absolutely  contrary  to  all 
principles  of  democracy  that  any  rights  to  govern  are  handed 
down  as  heredity  prerogatives.  Election  by  one's  peers  is  the 
only  possible  just  method  of  being  given  the  right  to  govern. 
By  popular  suffrage  only  can  any  people  ever  expect  to  secure 
rulers  of  the  highest  ability.  Hereditary  monarchs  are  as  apt 
to  be  mediocre  as  geniuses,  knaves  as  righteous  men,  insane 
egotists  as  wise  humanitarians. 

There  are  many  more  very  important  questions  connected 
with  this  fascinating  subject  but  which  it  will  not  be  possible 
to  discuss  in  this  elementary  book.  Among  the  most  interest- 
ing and  important  of  these  questions  is  that  known  as  the 
transmission  of  acquired  characters.  That  question  stated 
briefly  is:  "Are  the  effects  of  modifications  of  structure  and 
function  produced  in  a  given  individual  transmitted  to  off- 
spring born  subsequent  to  the  modification?"  One  school 
of  thinkers,  the  La  Marckians,  maintains  that  whatever  affects 
a  given  individual  is  most  certainly  repeated  in  posterity. 
The  Weismannian  school,  on  the  other  hand,  asserts  that  such 
is  a  scientific  impossibility.  The  arguments  have  been  ex- 
tended and  heated,  and  there  is  much  to  be  said  on  each  side. 
Before  a  final  solution  is  possible,  there  must  be  much  more 
observation  and  experimentation. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Mention  some  physical  trait  among  animals  that  you  know  is  present 
in  several  successive  generations  of  the  same  family.  2.  The  same  con- 
cerning some  hereditary  human  feature.  3.  In  a  similar  way  consider 
some  apparently  hereditary  mental  quality  in  some  family.  4.  Is  it  easy 
to  determine  whether  mental  characters  are  hereditary?  5.  Have  you 
read  anything  on  eugenics,  euthenics,  Mendelism,  transmission  of  acquired 
characters?  6,  What  is  meant  by  social  heredity?  7.  Of  what  practical 
value  is  a  knowledge  of  heredity?  8.  Find  out  the  cost  in  your  state  to 
maintain  the  (a)  feeble-minded,  (b)  insane,  (c)  criminals. 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  IX. 

2.  Conklin,  The  Phenomena  of  Inheritance. 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   HEREDITY  75 

3.  Davenport,  Eugenics :  The  Science  of  Human  Improvement.  Entire  book. 

4.  Guyer,  Being  Well  Born.     Entire  book. 

5.  Jennings  (Watson,  Meyer,  and  Thomas),  Suggestions  of  Modern  Science 

Concerning  Education,  chap.  I. 

6.  Thomson,  Heredity.     Entire  book. 

7.  Tyler,  Growth  and  Education,  chaps.  II,  III. 

8.  Waddle,  An  Introduction  to  Child  Psychology,  chap.  IV. 

9.  Walter,  Genetics:  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Heredity,  chaps.  I,  II, 

V. 
10.  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behaviorist,  chaps.  VI,  VII. 


CHAPTER  VI 
NATIVE  ENDOWMENT:  INSTINCT 

Instincts  Not  Confined  to  Lower  Animals. — Instincts  are 
ascribed  by  the  uneducated  only  to  lower  animals.  Because 
man  comes  into  the  world  a  helpless  creature  and  remains  so 
for  such  a  long  period,  it  is  thought  that  human  beings  possess 
no  instincts.  These  traits  are  thought  to  be  special  provisions 
for  the  guidance  of  the  animals  lower  than  man.  But  although 
man  is  not  limited  to  habitual  reactions,  either  racial  or  indi- 
vidually acquired,  he  possesses  even  more  instincts  than  other 
animals.  The  reason  we  do  not  recognize  instinctive  traits  in 
man  is  because  they  are  exceedingly  complex,  rendered  so 
through  modification  by  each  other,  by  habits,  and  by  edu- 
cation. 

James  has  said  that  man  possesses  all  the  instincts  of  the 
lower  animals  and  many  more.  This  is  not  literally  true. 
Even  though  man  were  a  direct  descendant  of  all  the  lower 
animals,  we  should  remember  that  recapitulation  is  not  com- 
plete. Many  organs  and  functions  have  been  excised  in  the 
course  of  evolution.  Old  instincts  have  died  out  and  new 
ones  have  been  born.  It  would,  however,  be  correct  to  say 
that  man  possesses  as  many  instincts  as  the  lower  animals  and 
vastly  more.  Instincts  are  simply  inherited  potencies  or  im- 
pulses which  cause  the  individual  to  act  in  particular  direc- 
tions. AbiUties  in  music  or  mathematics  are  just  as  truly  in- 
stincts as  the  phenomena  of  nest-building  by  birds  or  the 
spinning  of  webs  by  spiders. 

Illustrations  and  Meaning  of  Instinct. — It  is  a  matter  of 
common  observation  that  the  lower  animals  perform  many 
activities  without  previous  training  on  the  part  of  the  indi- 
vidual. These  activities  apparently  are  performed  in  a  defi- 
nite and  uniform  manner  by  all   members  of  the  species. 

76 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT  77 

Among  typical  illustrations  we  may  cite  the  beaver  building 
its  dam  when  of  a  certain  age,  at  a  certain  time  of  the  year, 
and  in  a  tolerably  definite  manner.  The  wild  goose  migrates 
southward  every  year,  and  again  in  the  spring  its  well-known 
honk  may  be  heard  as  the  flock  seeks  northern  latitudes. 
Honey-bees  build  their  comb  in  an  apparently  invariable  way 
from  year  to  year;  wasps,  bumblebees,  yellow-jackets,  hornets, 
each  have  characteristic  ways  of  constructing  their  nests  and 
of  gathering  food.  Birds  of  a  given  species  build  nests  pecu- 
liar to  themselves;  dogs  bury  bones;  hyenas  are  ever  vigilant; 
and  cats  play  with  captured  mice;  cattle,  deer,  and  other  ani- 
mals are  afraid  of  red  objects.  Many  animals  possess  at  birth, 
or  almost  immediately  after,  fully  developed  reactions  for 
food-getting,  and  many  exhibit  very  early  attempts  at  self- 
protection  from  supposed  foes.  The  foregoing  activities  are 
denominated  as  instinctive,  and  instinct  may  be  defined  in  a 
preliminary  way  as  follows:  Instinct  is  an  inborn  tendency  on 
the  part  of  a  given  individual  to  act  in  a  certain  way  under  given 
stimuli  without  any  foresight  {necessarily)  of  the  end  to  be  ac- 
complished, and  without  any  previous  education  on  the  part  of 
the  individual. 

Among  human  instincts  which  are  most  readily  apparent 
the  following  are  typical:  Sucking,  biting,  clasping  with  fin- 
gers and  toes,  carrying  objects  to  the  mouth  in  infancy,  crying, 
smiling,  protruding  the  lips,  frowning,  gesturing,  holding  the 
head  erect,  sitting,  standing,  creeping,  walking,  climbing, 
fighting,  fear,  hunting,  parental  feelings. 

The  writer  uses  the  term  instinct  with  a  somewhat  wider 
significance.  It  is  considered  as  synonymous  with  hereditary 
capacity,  potentiality,  or  innate  power.  Some  .writers  define 
"instinct  as  an  hereditary  pattern  reaction,  the  separate  ele- 
ments of  which  are  movements  principally  of  the  striped  mus- 
cles." (Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behavior- 
isty  p.  231,)  The  wider  significance  as  employed  by  Marshall 
{Instinct  and  Reason)  seems  more  correct.  In  all  probability 
the  main  difference  is  in  the  terminology.  What  is  intended 
is  a  consideration  of  the  inborn  power,  ability,  or  capacity 


78     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

which  enables  some  individuals  to  accomplish  what  is  impos- 
sible to  other  individuals  not  so  equipped  innately.  We  have 
come  to  consider  the  differences  of  the  I.  Q.  of  different  in- 
dividuals and  the  constancy  of  the  I.  Q.  of  an  individual 
through  life.  The  I.  Q.  represents  an  inherent  potentiality 
or  capacity  of  the  individual  and  is  exactly  what  is  meant  by 
instinct  in  the  following  discussion.  We  might  almost  say 
that  the  "I.  Q."  is  one's  "innate  quahty"  for  learning. 

With  this  interpretation  such  qualities  as  speech,  play,  so- 
ciability, curiosity,  constructiveness,  and  abilities  in  music, 
mathematics,  languages,  philosophy  would  be  classed  as  in- 
stinctive. Some  would  object  that  these  are  not  instincts, 
but  that  they  represent  individual  acquisitions.  That  is  true, 
but  why  can  some  individuals  (human  beings)  learn  them  and 
other  individuals  (e.  g.,  dogs)  not?  If  language,  for  example, 
were  wholly  a  matter  of  imitation  why  does  not  Fido  learn  to 
speak  when  he  has  so  much  better  opportunity  than  some 
poor  waifs?  The  answer  is  that  the  human  child  possesses 
some  inherent  capacity  (instinct)  that  the  dog  does  not. 

Lewis  {Democracy's  High  School,  p.  52)  gives  an  apt  char- 
acterization of  some  instinctive  tendencies  of  the  high-school 
girl.     He  says: 

When  the  girl  comes  to  the  high  school,  she  is  a  tall,  lank,  awkward, 
rompish,  bashful,  self-conscious,  freakish,  lovable  youngster,  the  idol 
of  her  father's  heart.  When  she  leaves  the  high  school  after  four 
years,  she  is  a  neat,  trim,  graceful,  self-possessed,  responsive,  sweet 
girl-graduate,  soon  to  be  the  idol  of  somebody  else's  heart.  This  trans- 
figuration, however,  was  not  the  work  of  the  high  school;  it  must  be 
credited  to  Nature. 

Modifiability  of  Instincts. — It  has  been  a  popular  notion 
that  instincts  are  fixed  and  invariable.  Nothing  could  be 
further  from  the  truth.  It  is  true  that  the  appearance  of  an 
instinct  depends  mainly  upon  the  maturity  or  ripeness  of  the 
organism.  For  example,  the  beaver  generally  begins  to  build 
its  dam,  the  bird  to  build  its  nest,  and  the  child  to  walk  and 
talk,  when  their  bodily  structures  have  reached  a  certain  ma- 
turity and  inner  impulse  prompts  to  certain  activities. 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:    INSTINCT  79 

But  instincts  may  be  hastened  or  retarded  by  various  con- 
ditions. The  kind  of  weather,  altitude,  latitude,  and  condi- 
tions of  the  soil  all  affect  the  time  of  flowering  and  fruiting  in 
plants.  Wheat  and  corn  taken  north  ripen  later  than  usual 
until  acclimated,  but  if  moved  southward  they  are  hastened 
in  their  development.  People  living  under  the  equator  ma- 
ture, grow  old,  and  die  sooner  than  those  in  temperate  zones. 

House-martens  now  build  their  nests  beneath  the  eaves  of 
houses  while  formerly  they  lived  in  rocky  haunts.  Barn- 
swallows  also  build  their  mud  abodes  beneath  the  eaves  of 
barns.  This  they  cannot  have  done  long,  because  barns  are 
a  modern  invention.  Chimney-swallows  must  have  had  a 
different  method  of  nest-building  before  the  invention  of 
chimneys.  Domestic  ducks  in  Ceylon  have  lost  their  former 
natural  love  for  water,  and  are  entirely  terrestrial  in  their 
habits,  while  some  other  ducks  have  been  known  to  forsake 
their  marshy  haunts  and  build  their  nests  in  trees,  bringing 
their  young  to  the  water  on  their  backs.  Certain  species  of 
Australian  parrots  that  were  honey  feeders  have  become  fat 
feeders  since  the  development  of  the  sheep  industry,  which 
enables  them  to  prey  upon  the  carcasses  of  dead  sheep.  They 
have  learned  to  select  unerringly  certain  portions  of  the  car- 
cass which  affords  the  choicest  morsels.  The  polar  bear  has 
learned  to  bite  its  prey  instead  of  hugging  as  other  bears  do. 
Many  transformations  in  progress,  such  as  in  whales,  seals, 
and  dolphins  will  come  to  mind. 

The  domestication  of  wild  animals  affords  a  vast  array  of 
most  important  illustrations  of  the  transformation  of  habits, 
instincts,  and  even  of  structure.  The  testimony  should  be 
very  suggestive  of  the  possibilities  of  race  transformation  in 
the  human  species.  Domestic  horses  have  lost  most  of  their 
primitive  wildness,  and  the  new  instinct  of  docility  renders 
them  of  inestimable  service  to  man.  The  cat  in  its  wild  state 
is  one  of  the  fiercest  and  most  untamable  of  creatures,  but 
once  domesticated  it  is  one  of  the  gentlest,  and  most  attached 
to  man.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  fierceness  and  restlessness  of 
the  wolf  and  the  jackal  to  the  domestic  dog,  but  the  ancestry 


8o     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

of  the  latter  can  easily  be  traced  to  the  former.  Contrast  the 
sneaking,  ferocious  denizens  of  the  forest  with  well-bred  shep- 
herd or  Newfoundland  dogs,  which  display  such  affection, 
fidelity,  and  sagacity  in  protecting  the  interests  of  their  mas- 
ters. Even  among  domestic  dogs  we  find  great  plasticity  and 
variability  of  instincts  and  structure — all  the  result  of  definite 
attempts  to  produce  and  conserve  desirable  characteristics. 
Think  of  the  special  instincts  of  the  Newfoundland  as  com- 
pared with  the  greyhound;  those  of  the  collie  with  pointers 
and  setters;  and  each  of  these  as  compared  with  pugs,  poodles, 
and  terriers.  Each  shows  the  results  of  generations  of  edu- 
cation, conservation,  and  selection. 

Maturing  Periods. — It  used  to  be  thought  that  all  instincts 
manifested  themselves  at  birth,  but  this  is  now  known  to  be 
untrue.  Even  in  the  lower  animals  many  instincts  are  de- 
ferred for  a  considerable  time  after  birth.  For  example,  we 
may  cite  the  instincts  of  nest-building  in  birds,  comb-con- 
structing in  bees,  dam-building  in  beavers,  or  pointing  in  dogs. 
The  instinct  appears  when  the  organism  is  mature  in  develop- 
ment. When  the  physical  structure  of  the  bird,  for  example, 
becomes  properly  developed,  the  instincts  for  egg-laying  and 
nest-building  will  appear.  When  the  child's  brain-centres 
controlling  walking,  talking,  or  using  the  right  hand  become 
sufificiently  mature,  those  activities  will  begin  to  manifest 
themselves. 

Thorndike  says  {Elements  of  Psychology,  p.  187): 

That  an  instinctive  tendency  is  born  in  a  human  being  as  a  result  of 
the  structure  of  his  nervous  system  need  not  mean  that  it  is  present  at 
birth.  Creeping,  standing  erect,  and  laughing  are  surely  instinctive, 
but  appear  only  after  months  of  life.  The  new  feelings  and  desires 
which  characterize  the  change  from  childhood  to  adult  life  in  the  years 
from  thirteen  to  sixteen  are  as  truly  instinctive  as  the  infant's  fears. 
The  date  of  appearance  of  each  instinct  is  a  separate  problem. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  and  important  fact  that  if  instincts 
are  not  exercised  when  they  appear  they  do  not  develop,  but 
die  out.  For  example,  all  ducks  possess  the  instinct  for  swim- 
ming, but  if  they  are  not  allowed  to  be  near  water  during  the 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:    INSTINCT  8i 

first  few  weeks  of  life,  they  have  to  be  driven  into  the  water. 
Dogs  have  an  instinct  for  burying  bones,  old  shoes,  food,  but 
if  they  are  kept  away  from  the  earth  for  the  first  few  months 
of  life,  although  they  try  to  bury  things  on  the  floor,  they  find 
it  useless  and  cease  to  try,  and  the  instinct  dies  out. 
Thorndike  further  comments: 

That  a  tendency  is  due  to  inborn  nervous  make-up  need  not  mean 
that  it  will  remain  all  through  life.  On  the  contrary,  all  instincts  tend 
to  die  out  if  not  given  exercise,  and  may  be  killed  off — or,  to  use  the 
technical  term,  inhibited — when  circumstances  are  so  arranged  that 
their  manifestation  leads  to  discomfort.  Thus  chicks  brought  up  in 
isolation  from  the  parent  hen  do  not  show,  after  ten  or  twelve  days,  the 
tendency  to  follow  her;  and  children  are  taught  by  punishment  to 
abandon  their  original  tendency  to  grab  every  new  and  attractive  ob- 
ject which  they  see. 

James  {Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals ^ 
p.  6i)  emphasized  the  same  idea  in  the  following  words: 

In  children  we  observe  a  ripening  of  impulses  and  interests  in  a  cer- 
tain determinate  order.  Creeping,  walking,  climbing,  imitating  vocal 
sounds,  constructing,  drawing,  calculating,  possess  the  child  in  succes- 
sion; and  in  some  children  the  possession,  while  it  lasts,  may  be  of  a 
semifrantic  and  exclusive  sort.  Later,  the  interest  in  any  one  of  these 
things  may  wholly  fade  away.  Of  course,  the  proper  pedagogic  mo- 
ment to  work  skill  in,  and  to  clench  the  useful  habit,  is  when  the  native 
impulse  is  most  acutely  present.  Crowd  on  the  athletic  opportunities, 
the  mental  arithmetic,  the  verse-learning,  the  drawing,  the  botany,  or 
what  not,  the  moment  you  have  reason  to  think  the  hour  is  ripe.  The 
hour  may  not  last  long,  and  while  it  continues  you  may  safely  let  all 
the  child's  other  occupations  take  a  second  place.  In  this  way  you 
economize  time  and  deepen  skill;  for  many  an  infant  prodigy,  artistic 
or  mathematical,  has  a  flowering  epoch  of  but  a  few  months. 

In  order  that  the  child  may  develop  naturally,  it  is  necessary 
that  each  stage  of  growth  be  passed  through  normally  before 
passing  on  to  the  next  higher.  For  example,  it  is  well  known 
that  the  tadpole's  tail  does  not  drop  off,  but  is  absorbed  in 
some  way  during  the  period  of  the  growth  of  the  hind  legs. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  by  experiment  that  if  the  tail  is  cut 
ofT,  the  frog  grows  up  deformed.     Hence  Doctor  Hall   has 


al^HI 


S^  EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

coined  the  expression  "In  education  don't  cut  off  the  tad- 
pole's tail."  A  little  girl  was  watching  with  great  interest 
the  process  of  the  incubation  of  hen's  eggs.  As  the  chicks 
neared  the  time  for  emerging  from  the  eggs,  some  were  several 
hours  in  pecking  their  way  out  of  the  shell.  The  little  girl  felt 
sorry  for  them  and  concluded  to  help  them  out.  She  broke 
some  of  the  shells.  The  result  you  know.  Those  chicks 
either  died  or  were  deformed. 

Every  farmer  knows  full  well  that  cultivation  of  his  corn  at 
the  right  time  means  more  than  at  any  other  time.  Suppose 
he  allows  the  weeds  to  grow  up  around  the  corn  and  the  stalks 
become  yellow  and  sere;  no  amount  of  cultivation  can  restore 
the  corn  to  its  original  possibilities.  The  nascent  period  is 
past,  never  to  return  again.  But  have  we  learned  the  appli- 
cation of  such  lessons  to  the  process  of  education  ? 

Educational  Applications:  General. — All  effective  education 
must  take  into  consideration  the  latent  possibilities  of  the 
child.  What  he  becomes  depends  upon  his  inborn  capacities 
as  well  as  upon  his  training.  To  educate  wisely  we  must 
know  (i)  what  inborn  capacities  the  child  possesses,  (2)  the 
time  of  their  appearance,  and  (3)  what  will  bring  these  powers 
to  fullest  development.  If  a  child  possesses  a  high  degree  of 
latent  ability  in  a  given  direction,  e.  g.,  in  mathematics  or  in 
music,  it  will  be  easy  to  make  a  mathematician  or  a  musician 
out  of  him  by  right  training.  But  if  he  possesses  a  low  degree 
of  ability  in  either  of  these,  no  amount  of  training  will  be  of 
much  effect,  and  the  efforts  of  all  the  teachers  in  the  world 
would  not  accomplish  much. 

Thorndike  says  (Education,  p.  91): 

The  task  of  education  is  to  make  the  best  use  of  this  original  fund  of 
tendencies,  eradicating  its  vicious  elements,  wasting  the  least  possible 
of  value  that  nature  gives,  and  supplying  at  the  most  useful  time  the 
additions  that  are  needed  to  improve  and  satisfy  human  wants.  This 
task  is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  original  tendencies  are  often 
"delayed" — that  is,  appear  only  when  a  certain  stage  of  mental  growth 
is  reached — so  that  education  has  to  wait  perhaps  longer  than  it 
wishes  before  it  can  count  upon  them.  It  is  further  complicated  by 
their  transitoriness.     Many  tendencies  appear  for  a  time,  but  wane  if 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT  83 

not  given  exercise  and  reward;  so  that  education  has  to  strike  while 
the  iron  is  hot.  If  the  response  is  sought  too  early,  effort  is  wasted;  if 
it  is  sought  too  late,  the  effort  may  fail  altogether. 

He  comments  further  {Principles  of  Teaching,  pp.  22,  32-34) : 

Education  may  also  be  made  more  and  more  economical  in  propor- 
tion as  it  utilizes  the  forces  of  natural  tendencies  to  attain  its  ideal  ends. 
Whenever  we  work  with  rather  than  against  nature,  the  task  becomes 
easy  and  the  burden  light.  Fractions  become  easy  with  the  help  of 
apples  and  blocks  and  knives  and  jig-saw,  because  the  instinctive  ten- 
dencies to  attend  to  concrete  objects  and  to  enjoy  physical  action  and 
manipulation  are  called  into  service. 

Teaching  may  be  wasteful  or  even  harmful  by  neglect  of  the  fact  of 
delayed  instincts  and  capacities.  Theology  for  the  ten-year-old  in 
Sunday-schools  and  Jane  Austen's  novels  for  high-school  boys  are 
much  the  same  as  cabbage  for  babies.  Cabbage  is  a  good  food  only 
when  the  capacity  to  digest  it  exists.  Teaching  little  girls  to  be  atten- 
tive to  their  dress  and  appearance  is  much  the  same  as  trying  to  teach 
an  infant  of  six  months  to  walk.  The  interest  in  clothes  and  looks  will 
come  of  itself  with  adolescence,  just  as  the  walking  instinct  will  come 
of  itself  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  year. 

Just  as  the  delayed  appearance  of  inborn  tendencies  makes  too  early 
teaching  wasteful,  so  their  transitoriness  makes  too  tardy  teaching 
fruitless.  The  manual  dexterity  of  the  pianist,  for  instance,  must  be 
acquired  early  in  life,  if  at  all.  The  instincts  and  capacities  important 
in  education  are,  however,  for  the  most  part  long-lived,  and,  if  not 
suppressed  by  actual  ill  treatment,  persist  through  the  years  of  school 
life  without  special  stimulation  from  teachers.  So  with  the  instincts  of 
action,  curiosity,  the  love  of  outdoor  life  and  sport,  emulation,  and 
many  others. 

Application  in  Some  Special  Instincts:  (A)  Expression. — 
Children  often  invent  gesture  language.  Deaf-mutes  also  do 
so,  even  when  isolated  from  speaking  people.  Ribot  quotes 
Gerando  as  saying  that:  "Children  of  about  7  years  old  who 
have  not  yet  been  educated  make  use  of  an  astonishing  num- 
ber of  gestures  ...  in  communication  with  each  other."  As 
a  further  illustration  of  this  spontaneous,  natural  language,  he 
says  that:  "Gerando  and  others  after  him  remarked  that  deaf- 
mutes  in  their  native  state  communicate  easily  with  one 
another.     He  enumerates  a  long  series  of  ideas  which  they  ex- 


84     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

press  in  their  mimicry  and  gestures,  and  many  of  these  ex- 
pressions are  identical  in  all  countries."  {Evolution  of  General 
Ideas,  p.  40.) 

This  instinct  for  expression  should  receive  proper  attention. 
As  soon  as  the  child  manifests  a  desire  to  communicate  his 
ideas  in  speech,  his  crude,  spontaneous,  and  more  deliberative 
attempts  should  be  encouraged.  Instead  of  mimicking  the 
child  in  his  baby  expressions  and  helping  to  fix  the  wrong  form 
in  his  mind,  one  should  repeat  for  him  the  correct  form  dis- 
tinctly and  encourage  the  child  (not  nag  him)  to  imitate.  The 
vocal  organs  are  now  ripe  for  utterance  and  should  be  exer- 
cised. If  the  child  does  not  develop  the  speech  organs  during 
this  nascent  period,  he  will  ever  be  slow,  halting,  or  deficient 
in  the  use  of  words.  Certain  it  is  that  new  words  are  ac- 
cumulated with  amazing  rapidity  during  this  budding  period. 
The  two-year-old  child  has  amassed,  within  a  year,  from  300 
to  1,200  words,  representing  ideas,  and  may  have  as  many 
more  parrot-words,  i.  e.,  sounds  imitated  without  an  under- 
standing of  the  meanings.  These  latter  have  been  gathered 
from  rhymes,  jingles,  and  from  conversation  not  understood, 
and  from  chance  association  of  sounds  with  objects  or  actions. 
Now  even  these  parrot-words  are  important,  for  they  gradually 
acquire  fulness  of  meaning.  Words  are,  as  Doctor  Harris  has 
said,  like  bags;  once  acquired,  they  hold  all  the  perceptions 
and  reflections  that  relate  to  the  idea  symbolized  by  the  word. 

Not  only  should  the  child  be  assisted  in  enunciation,  but 
his  environment  should  be  such  as  to  lead  to  the  production 
of  ideas.  Although  I  do  not  coincide  with  the  renowned  Max 
Miiller  that  there  can  be  no  thinking  without  words,  yet  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  the  best  thinking  utilizes  words  as  instru- 
ments. The  child  that  is  properly  environed,  who  gratifies 
his  appetite  for  seeing,  hearing,  and  touching  things,  who  is 
led  to  think  about  these  things  (for  thinking  does  not  hurt 
children),  and  who  is  not  overs timulated,  will  surely  acquire 
words  as  mature  people  acquire  tools  to  accomplish  their 
mechanical  work. 

The  instinct  of  curiosity,  the  constructive  instinct,  and  the 


NATIVE  ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT  85 

inborn  tendency  to  play,  all  co-operate  in  the  acquisition  of 
language.  The  child  must  see  and  examine  things  for  him- 
self; he  should  not  stumble  upon  them  all  by  chance;  design- 
edly he  should  be  led  to  where  things  are;  he  must  be  helped 
to  see  them  aright;  he  must  have  facts  told  about  them;  he 
must  be  questioned  about  them;  and,  above  all,  he  must  have 
questions  answered  that  he  will  surely  ask.  In  this  way  he 
will  pick  up  much  language;  he  will  have  given  to  him  many 
new  words;  he  will  ask  terms  from  you,  and  he  will  even  coin 
them  for  himself. 

(B)  Curiosity. — Curiosity  is  a  fundamental  instinct,  ob- 
servable far  down  in  the  scale  of  animal  life.  It  is  apt  to  be 
coupled  with  fear  in  the  presence  of  strange  objects.  Who 
has  not  seen  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine  hovering  around 
a  newly  discovered  and  strange  object,  oftentimes  walking 
round  and  round,  hovering  in  its  vicinity,  but  ever  with  nerves 
tense,  ready  to  make  off  with  the  greatest  speed  on  the  dis- 
covery of  apparently  harmful  or  undesirable  signs  ?  Any  one 
who  has  tried  to  catch  a  horse  in  a  pasture  by  luring  him  with 
a  pretense  of  food  has  received  a  lasting  remembrance  of  this 
blending  of  curiosity  and  fear.  Small  children,  and  even 
adults,  often  manifest  similar  states.  I  have  seen  a  child  of 
one  year  cry  with  fear  on  seeing  an  umbrella,  but  no  amount 
of  persuasion  could  bring  her  away  from  its  vicinity,  so  fas- 
cinating it  seemed.  Many  adults  often  flirt  with  the  dan- 
gerous and  uncanny  in  the  same  way.  Who  has  not  gone 
through  a  dark  wood,  a  dark  room,  all  quaking  with  fear,  but 
curious  to  ferret  out  some  mystery?  Every  one  would  fain 
take  a  turn  at  hunting  for  spooks  in  a  haunted  house. 

Spencer  says: 

Whoever  has  watched  with  any  discernment,  the  wide-eyed  gaze  of 
the  infant  at  surrounding  objects,  knows  very  well  that  education  does 
begin  thus  early,  whether  we  intend  it  or  not;  and  that  these  fingerings 
and  suckings  of  everything  it  can  lay  hold  of,  these  open-mouthed  lis- 
tenings to  every  sound,  are  the  first  steps  in  the  series  which  ends  in 
the  discovery  of  unseen  planets,  the  invention  of  calculating  engines, 
the  production  of  great  paintings,  or  the  composition  of  symphonies 
and  operas.     This  activity  of  the  faculties  from  the  very  first  being 


86     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

spontaneous  and  inevitable,  the  question  is  whether  we  shall  supply  in 
due  variety  the  materials  on  which  they  may  exercise  themselves ;  and 
to  the  question  so  put,  none  but  an  afi&rmative  answer  can  be  given. 
{Education,  p.  128.) 

Lloyd  Morgan  gives  expression  to  a  coincident  opinion 
where  he  says: 

Herein,  then,  lies  the  utility  of  the  restlessness,  the  exuberant  activ- 
ity, the  varied  playfulness,  the  prying  curiosity,  the  inquisitiveness, 
the  meddlesome  mischievousness,  the  vigorous  and  healthy  experimen- 
talism  of  the  young.     {Habit  and  Instinct,  p.  162.) 


The  child,  through  his  instinctive  curiosity,  is  a  born  in- 
vestigator. Normally  he  pulls  things  to  pieces  to  see  how 
they  are  made  and  how  they  go.  His  unwise  elders  often  con- 
demn what  they  believe  to  be  innate  destructiveness,  but  he 
is  simply  trying  to  satisfy  his  craving  for  knowledge.  To  keep 
alive  this  instinct  and  further  its  normal  development  is  high 
teaching  art.  Too  often  before  the  end  of  school  life  the  in- 
stinct has  completely  atrophied.  To  get  the  college  student 
to  desire  to  know  is  the  most  difficult  task  before  the  college 
instructor.  Not  infrequently  before  the  college  is  reached  all 
knowledge  is  taken  in  prescribed  doses,  and  largely  because  ill 
consequences  are  feared  if  directions  are  not  followed. 

(C)  Activity  and  Constructiveness. — A  child  of  six  months 
accidentally  knocks  two  tin  cans  together,  and  discovers  that 
he  has  done  something.  He  immediately  strives  to  continue 
this  experiment,  and  his  beaming  countenance  gives  ample 
evidence  of  the  satisfaction  gained.  At  eight  months  a  child 
accidentally  dropped  a  teaspoon  upon  the  floor.  When  the 
teaspoon  was  given  to  the  child  again,  he  at  once  began  to 
exert  himself  to  repeat  the  dropping  process.  After  that, 
whenever  the  spoon  was  given  to  him,  the  dropping  recurred. 
Evidently  the  child's  desire  to  repeat  the  action  was  prompted 
not  so  much  by  the  pleasurable  noise  as  the  satisfaction  of 
doing  something.  From  the  time  children  can  walk  I  have 
found  them  anxious  to  do  things  that  grown-up  people  do. 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT  87 

They  are  anxious  to  dust,  sweep,  wash,  iron,  bake,  make  beds, 
carry  things,  read,  write,  and  go  on  errands.  They  are  called 
lazy  a  little  later  on,  but  I  believe  that  a  normal,  healthy  child 
has  not  a  lazy  fibre  in  its  make-up.  Its  muscles,  nerves,  and 
senses  are  hungry  for  exercise,  and  every  effort  is  made  by 
the  child  to  satisfy  these  cravings.  The  child  may  be  lazy  in 
the  sense  that  your  particular  kind  of  occupation  may  be 
repugnant  to  him,  but  if  you  watch  the  little  feet  trot  all  day 
you  can  hardly  have  the  heart  to  call  him  lazy. 

Constructiveness  is  a  fundamental  instinct  of  so  much  im- 
portance as  to  merit  special  consideration.  All  children  early 
exhibit  tendencies  toward  making  things.  I  have  noticed  a 
child  of  seven  months  trying  to  place  one  block  upon  another 
in  imitation  of  other  children.  Miss  Shinn  tells  us  that  her 
niece,  as  early  as  seven  months,  would  not  listen  contentedly 
to  older  persons  playing  the  piano,  but  that  she  was  satisfied 
only  when  trying  it  herself.  {Nates  on  the  Development  of  a 
Child,  p.  116.) 

In  these  inborn  tendencies  to  activity  and  constructiveness 
are  the  teacher's  and  parent's  golden  opportunities.  The 
parent  should  encourage  the  little  ones  to  help.  In  this  way 
the  work  hahit  will  be  instilled,  and  by  the  time  the  child  is 
five  years  of  age  it  may  save  its  mother  many  steps  every 
day.  It  can  pick  up  and  put  away  its  own  playthings,  and 
run  on  errands.  (I  have  known  four-year-olds  to  go  half  a 
mile  and  purchase  correctly  things  from  a  store,  and  to  go 
daily  for  little  grocery  orders  in  the  neighborhood.)  Most 
children  want  to  hammer,  and  saw,  and  make.  A  child  can 
have  no  more  useful  educative  appliances  than  a  hammer, 
some  nails,  and  boards  into  which  he  may  have  full  liberty 
to  drive  the  nails.  I  have  noticed  children  of  two  years  amuse 
themselves  in  this  way  for  hours  at  a  time.  They  may  not 
develop  into  carpenters  when  grown  up,  but  they  have  gained 
an  education  through  the  process.  It  is  a  pity  that  children 
cannot  have  sets  of  tools  and,  instead  of  having  all  their  toys, 
sleds,  and  carts  made  for  them,  be  encouraged  to  construct 
them  for  themselves. 


SS  EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

James  has  put  the  matter  very  aptly  in  the  following  para- 
graph: 

Constructiveness  is  the  instinct  most  active;  and  by  the  incessant 
hammering  and  sawing,  and  dressing  and  undressing  dolls,  putting  of 
things  together  and  taking  them  apart,  the  child  not  only  trains  the 
muscles  to  co-ordinate  action,  but  accumulates  a  store  of  physical  con- 
ceptions which  are  the  basis  of  his  knowledge  of  the  material  world 
through  life.  Object-teaching  and  manual  training  wisely  extend  the 
sphere  of  this  order  of  acquisition.  Clay,  wood,  metals,  and  the  vari- 
ous kinds  of  tools  are  made  to  contribute  to  the  store.  ...  To  have 
grown  up  on  a  farm,  to  have  haunted  a  carpenter's  and  blacksmith's 
shop,  to  have  handled  horses  and  cows  and  boats  and  guns,  and  to 
have  ideas  and  abilities  connected  with  such  objects  are  an  inestimable 
part  of  youthful  acquisition.  After  adolescence  it  is  rare  to  be  able 
to  get  into  familiar  touch  with  any  of  these  primitive  things.  The  in- 
stinctive propensions  have  faded,  and  the  habits  are  hard  to  acquire. 

Accordingly,  one  of  the  best  fruits  of  the  ''child-study"  movement 
has  been  to  reinstate  all  these  activities  to  their  proper  place  in  a 
sound  system  of  education.  Feed  the  growing  human  being,  feed  him 
with  the  sort  of  experience  for  which  from  year  to  year  he  shows  a 
natural  craving,  and  he  will  develop  in  adult  life  a  sounder  sort  of  men- 
tal tissue,  even  though  he  may  seem  to  be  "wasting"  a  great  deal  of 
his  growing  time,  in  the  eyes  of  those  for  whom  the  only  channels  of 
learning  are  books  and  verbally  communicated  information.  (James, 
Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals,  p.  146.) 

(D)  Play. — The  educative  value  of  the  play  instinct  has 
been  recognized  by  kindergartners  since  the  time  of  Froebel. 
It  has  recently  received  much  study  by  others,  and  undoubt- 
edly it  is  a  means  of  intellectual  and  moral  discipline.  Both 
free  play  and  regulated  play  whose  ends  are  certain  discipline 
are  valuable.  In  the  first  five  or  six  years  the  play  should  be 
almost  entirely  free  play,  without  adult  restrictions  imposed 
upon  it.  In  the  first  place,  the  tonic  effects  of  play  upon  the 
nervous  system  are  of  great  moment.  To  remove  temporary 
fatigue  there  is  absolutely  no  substitute  for  the  good  old- 
fashioned  recess,  with  its  laugh  and  shout  and  capering  wildly 
about. 

Play,  then,  during  the  early  stage  of  childhood,  before  the 
child  has  gained  control  over  the  accessory  muscles,  should  be 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:    INSTINCT  89 

largely  spontaneous  and  unrestricted.  Even  then  something 
may  be  done  to  regulate  and  direct  play  which  does  not  In- 
volve fine  co-ordinations.  The  kindergarten  games  which  In- 
clude movements  Involving  the  larger  muscles  of  the  trunk, 
those  controlling  the  head,  arms,  and  legs,  may  be  engaged 
in  to  great  advantage.  These  should  have  in  view  the  exer- 
cise of  the  social  instincts.  Many  little  social  duties  and 
amenities  may  be  thoroughly  inculcated  In  children  through 
play  which  is  organized  and  directed  by  the  teacher.  Some 
children  recently  had  a  birthday  party.  The  whole  direction 
of  the  affair  was  given  by  the  mother.  They  were  helped  to 
arrange  the  little  table,  were  assigned  places,  given  a  few  direc- 
tions, and  through  imitation  of  others  they  carried  out  the 
rest  of  the  programme.  The  little  games  which  the  klnder- 
gartner  directs  (though  she  may  seem  to  be  asking  their  ad- 
vice) are  of  immense  value  in  helping  children,  through  imita- 
tion and  obedience,  to  learn  the  fundamental  laws  of  society. 
These  plays  should  certainly  be  well  adapted  to  the  capacity 
of  the  children,  never  predominantly  Inhibltlve  or  restraining, 
rather  the  reverse.  But  enough  of  control  should  be  sought 
to  lead  the  child  to  form  habits  of  self-control.  Many  boys' 
organizations  {e.  g.,  baseball  teams)  do  not  hang  together  well 
but  go  to  pieces  on  slight  provocation.  Bryan  concludes  from 
this  that  therefore  play  up  to  about  twelve  years  ''should  be 
unhampered,  spontaneous,  and  careless  of  ends."  This  may 
be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  childhood  cannot  produce  lead- 
ership. President  Bryan  concludes  that:  "Unquestioned  obe- 
dience to  rational,  intelligent  authority  should  be  the  principle 
in  the  management  of  young  children,  and  freedom  from  this 
principle  w411  increase  with  the  development  of  the  child." 
{Fed.  Sem.,  vol.  VII,  p.  380.) 

(E)  The  Social  Instinct  is  one  that  exhibits  itself  early. 
The  babe  of  a  few  weeks  old  shows  signs  of  lonesomeness  when 
left  alone,  especially  if  It  has  been  much  tended.  By  the  time 
the  child  is  five  or  six  months  old  absence  of  accustomed  mem- 
bers of  the  family,  especially  children,  causes  no  little  irrita- 
bility. 


90     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

The  social  instinct  furnishes  a  starting-point  for  the  com- 
plete training  of  the  individual  for  his  place  in  society.  The 
laws  of  society  can  be  learned  only  by  being  in  social  organi- 
zations. A  child  isolated  from  the  world  grows  up  a  social 
monster,  because  of  the  abnormal  development  of  his  selfish 
nature.  Rousseau  taught  that  man  is  by  nature  a  pure  being, 
becoming  corrupt  by  contact  with  artificial  society.  There- 
fore he  isolates  Emile  from  his  fellows  from  birth  to  manhood. 
But  such  an  individual  could  not  live  in  society,  because  he 
has  found  no  place  in  it.  Law  and  order,  the  basis  of  our 
social  fabric,  are  meaningless  to  him.  Hence  the  child  must 
learn  the  fundamentals  of  social  organizations  by  subjecting 
himself  to  the  restrictions  imposed  by  society  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  and  the  individuals  composing  the  whole. 

The  family  is  the  first  to  impose  restrictions  and  extend 
privileges.  Instinctively  the  child  learns  about  the  family 
organization  and  also  imitates  their  reactions  toward  one 
another.  By  this  undesigned  process  the  child  unconsciously 
forms  numberless  habits,  which  will  be  priceless  to  him  all 
his  life.  He  should  learn,  for  example,  how  to  treat  his  par- 
ents, brothers  and  sisters,  strangers,  how  to  behave  at  the 
table,  not  to  disturb  the  family  or  neighborhood  peace.  But 
even  this  would  leave  him  undisciplined  in  many  essential  re- 
lationships imposed  by  society  at  large.  There  is  the  school 
which  the  child  early  yearns  to  attend.  I  believe  all  children 
want  to  go  to  school  not  because  it  is  school,  but  because 
many  children  are  there.  Now,  too  early  formal  school  work 
is  injurious,  but  there  is  the  kindergarten,  and  if  properly  con- 
ducted it  is  a  blessing  to  the  children.  There  the  children 
can  assemble  under  pure,  wholesome  influences,  through  exer- 
cises appealing  to  the  instincts  of  sociability,  expression,  and 
constructiveness  learn  through  play  some  of  the  most  valu- 
able lessons  of  their  lives.  Children  of  the  most  disagreeably 
selfish  dispositions  may  there,  with  little  or  no  coercion,  de- 
velop the  control  and  proper  emotional  attitude  for  most 
amiable  actions.  Through  imitation  of  their  fellows  they 
learn  to  do  many  things  which  could  never  have  been  beaten 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:    INSTINCT  91 

into  them,  and  they  drop  many  habits  which  could  never 
have  been  beaten  out  of  them. 

One  of  the  most  important  recent  movements  in  education 
is  the  studied  attempt  to  use  the  school  as  a  means  of  develop- 
ing social  consciousness  in  the  pupils.  This  is  accomphshed, 
first  through  the  encouragement  of  organizations  like  the  glee- 
club,  the  literary  society,  and  the  athletic  organizations;  sec- 
ond, through  the  introduction  of  the  social  studies  in  the 
grammar-school  and  high  school.  Through  the  former  the 
pupils  get  practice  in  co-operative  enterprises,  and  through 
the  latter  interpretation  of  social  organizations.  They  are  in 
a  nascent  stage  for  the  development  of  the  social  instinct.  If 
cultivated,  the  school  may  become  a  most  effective  means  for 
promoting  good  citizenship. 

Application  in  Learning  Arithmetic. — Very  great  mistakes 
are  often  made  in  the  arrangement  of  courses  of  study.  Cer- 
tain subjects  are  required  long  before  the  child  has  developed 
so  as  to  comprehend  them.  Other  subjects  are  postponed 
until  after  the  time  they  can  be  acquired  to  advantage.  In 
other  words,  some  are  presented  before  the  budding  period, 
while  others  are  deferred  until  long  after  it  is  past.  Arithme- 
tic is  one  of  the  subjects  which  has  been  badly  adjusted  to  the 
powers  of  the  child.  A  great  deal  of  arithmetic  is  so  abstract 
that  no  child  can  master  it  until  near  the  period  of  youth, 
when  the  brain  development  makes  the  mind  ripe  for  abstract 
thinking.  In  an  earlier  chapter  attention  was  called  to  the 
waste  of  time  from  placing  too  much  formal  arithmetic  in  the 
primary  grades  of  school.  By  omitting  all  arithmetic  work 
from  the  first  two  grades  it  has  been  found  that  children  are 
as  far  advanced  in  arithmetic  by  the  end  of  the  fourth  year 
as  if  they  had  taken  it  four  years. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  parts  of  arithmetic  like  the  addi- 
tion, subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division  tables  can  be 
learned  by  mechanical  memory,  which  is  well  developed  by 
8  or  9  years  of  age.  These  processes  can  be  mastered  better 
before  12  than  ever  afterward.  But  frequently  when  the 
pupil  enters  the  high  school  his  knowledge  of  these  elements 


92     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

of  arithmetic  is  very  inaccurate.  Consequently  he  has  hard 
work  to  learn  processes  that  could  have  been  mastered  so 
easily  before;  and  he  is  also  deprived  of  the  time  for  learning 
more  abstract  things. 

Application  in  Learning  Language. — There  is  a  special  period 
in  the  life  of  the  child  when  he  can  learn  to  speak  language 
to  the  best  advantage.  At  the  beginning  of  the  period  the 
child  continually  chatters  and  shows  a  desire  to  talk.  It  has 
been  called  the  "la-la"  period.  If  the  child  has  an  oppor- 
tunity to  hear  speech  at  that  time  he  acquires  language  with 
amazing  rapidity.  In  a  few  months  he  acquires  a  vocabulary 
that  would  take  an  adult  many  years  to  gain.  Children  who 
come  from  foreign  countries  learn  to  speak  our  language  flu- 
ently and  with  great  accuracy  in  a  few  months.  But  their 
parents  usually  have  great  difficulty  in  trying  to  learn  the 
language,  and  they  seldom  master  it.  The  parents  try  much 
harder  than  the  children.  They  cannot  learn  to  speak  the 
language  so  readily  because  the  budding  period  is  past.  The 
muscles  of  the  vocal  organs  have  become  fixed,  and  the  brain- 
centres  which  control  speech  no  longer  adapt  themselves  to 
new  ways  of  acting  as  they  once  did.  The  case  is  exactly 
parallel  to  that  of  the  adult  man  who  can  no  longer  learn  to 
play  new  athletic  games  or  gymnasium  tricks  the  same  as  he 
could  when  a  boy. 

The  study  of  language  and  grammar  are  often  interchanged 
in  time.  Abstract  grammar  is  given  at  a  time  when  the  child 
could  easily  learn  oral  language,  and  as  a  consequence  he 
never  masters  either.  Spelling  should  be  completely  mastered 
before  the  high  school  is  reached,  and  could  be  if  given  by 
methods  adapted  to  child  life  and  not  displaced  by  so  much 
abstract  grammar  and  arithmetic. 

Adjustment  in  the  Grammar-School  Age. — A  knowledge  of 
instincts  is  of  very  great  importance  in  adjusting  grammar- 
school  and  high-school  work.  In  these  stages  of  school  work 
there  is  an  appalling  amount  of  dropping  out  of  school,  as  will 
be  seen  from  the  accompanying  diagram.  It  has  been  gener- 
ally assumed  that  poverty  is  the  reason  why  pupils  drop  out 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT 


93 


of  school  in  such  large  numbers  from  the  ages  of  12  to  16. 
Undoubtedly  there  are  altogether  too  many  cases  that  should 
be  explained  in  that  way,  but  recent  studies  show  clearly  that 
the  great  majority  drop  out  of  school  during  that  period  not 


rz 

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389 

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^ 

SCHOOL  ENROLMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  THE  YEAR  1920 

Statistics  of  State  School  Systems,  1919-1920;  Bulletin,  1922,  No.  29,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education. 


from  economic  pressure  but  because  they  do  not  wish  to  go. 
The  work  does  not  appeal  to  them  and  they  think  that  they 
would  like  to  be  out  in  the  big,  busy  world. 

They  are  wrong  when  they  think  that  the  school  has  nothing 
worth  while  for  them,  but  is  it  not  probable  that  we  should 
heed  the  suggestion  that  the  school  is  not  well  enough  ad- 
justed to  the  particular  instincts  and  inclinations  of  that  pecu- 
liar and  critical  age  ?  The  majority  of  healthy  boys  and  girls 
are  much  more  interested  in  physical  activities,  in  doing  things, 
than  in  conning  books  and  merely  learning  about  things.  Has 
the  school  not  been  too  bookish  ?  To  be  sure,  the  shops,  lab- 
oratories, field  trips,  and  play  fields  are  correcting  the  defects, 


94     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

but  there  is  much  more  to  be  done.  The  boys  and  girls  are 
not  averse  to  using  books,  if  the  books  deal  with  subjects  that 
come  near  to  their  interests. 

Adjustment  in  Learning  Literature. — The  study  of  literature 
affords  an  opportunity  to  observe  the  importance  of  adapting 
the  material  to  the  stage  of  development  of  the  pupils.  In 
childhood,  rhymes,  jingles,  myths,  and  fairy-tales  are  eagerly 
read  by  most  children.  Students  of  childhood  have  succeeded 
fairly  well  in  selecting  types  of  literature  that  appeal.  The 
selections  for  grammar-school  pupils  have  not  been  so  for- 
tunate. While  the  pupils  respond  eagerly  to  hero  tales,  stories 
of  boy-and-girl  life  and  adventure,  too  much  that  is  found  in 
the  grammar-school  reading-books  consists  of  morality  essays, 
dry  facts  of  history,  and  political  philosophy.  This  mal- 
adaptation  is  being  gradually  corrected  in  our  better  schools. 

The  high-school  course  in  literature  needs  drastic  revision 
on  the  basis  of  pupils'  interests.  The  literary  masterpieces 
studied  in  many  of  our  high  schools  have  been  chosen  by  col- 
lege professors,  from  their  point  of  view.  For  example, 
Burke's  "Speech  on  ConciHation,"  while  a  masterpiece  of  lit- 
erary diction  and  political  philosophy,  seldom  awakens  any 
responsive  chord  in  high-school  pupils.  I  have  inquired  of 
thousands  of  university  students  regarding  this,  and  the 
above  verdict  is  almost  universal.  Similar  attitudes  are  ex- 
pressed toward  "Paradise  Lost,"  "L'Allegro,"  "II  Penseroso," 
and  others  suited  to  adult  minds.  They  are  all  excellent 
pieces  of  literature  and  would  be  enjoyed  by  the  majority  of 
adults,  if  presented  in  the  right  way.  But  by  no  method  of 
presentation  can  much  interest  in  them  be  aroused  in  the 
minds  of  most  immature  adolescents.  If  literature  in  the 
grammar-school  and  the  high  school  is  to  appeal  and  motivate 
the  future  lives  of  pupils,  the  types  must  be  chosen  by  the 
pupils.  The  particular  selections  exemplifying  the  types  can 
be  determined  largely  by  the  teachers. 

Arrested  Development. — It  is  well  known  that  plants  not 
cultivated  at  the  proper  time,  or  which  fail  to  receive  sunlight 
and  moisture  at  certain  stages,  become  stunted  and  remain 


NATIVE   ENDOWMENT:   INSTINCT  95 

dwarfed  and  sickly.  Similarly  children  that  are  not  properly 
nourished  during  the  growing  periods  are  checked  or  arrested 
in  their  development.  Even  if  they  recover  in  size  at  a  later 
time,  their  development  is  not  natural  and  they  are  liable  to 
disease. 

Mental  powers,  no  less  than  physical,  are  liable  to  arrest  if 
uncultivated  at  the  opportune  moment.  Subjects  which 
might  be  learned  with  ease  at  certain  times  are  acquired  with 
the  utmost  difficulty  if  postponed  until  after  the  nascent 
period.  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  teach  algebra  to  mature 
persons  who  had  never  studied  the  subject  previously.  I  have 
also  taught  it  to  boys  and  girls  of  a  dozen  years,  and  have 
found  that  the  children  grasp  the  subject  much  more  easily 
and  better  than  the  adults.  The  minds  of  the  latter  had  be- 
come so  habituated  to  the  elementary  processes  that  a  tran- 
sition to  higher  processes  was  difficult.  While  we  should  fix, 
In  the  form  of  habits,  all  activities  that  must  be  continually 
repeated  in  the  same  way,  yet  we  should  guard  against  too 
definite  crystallization  of  mental  processes.  Every  habit 
tends  to  enslave  its  possessor.  Pupils  frequently  make  a  mis- 
take in  going  over  subjects  again  and  again  simply  to  get  them 
thoroughly.  It  is  usually  better  for  pupils  to  take  new  sub- 
jects of  reasonable  difficulty  than  to  repeat  subjects  fairly  well 
learned. 

Doctor  Harris,  former  commissioner  of  education,  was  the 
first  to  call  attention  in  a  striking  way  to  arrests  of  develop- 
ment caused  through  overtraining  in  certain  processes  and 
the  neglect  of  higher  ones.  He  said:  "Teachers  should  be 
careful,  especially  with  precocious  children,  not  to  continue 
too  long  in  the  use  of  a  process  that  is  becoming  mechanical." 

Summary. — Dewey,  though  an  educational  sociologist,  rec- 
ognizes fully  the  significance  of  instincts  in  education.  He 
says  {My  Pedagogic  Creed) : 

I  believe  that  this  educational  process  has  two  sides — one  psycho- 
logical and  one  sociological;  and  that  neither  can  be  subordinated  to 
the  other  or  neglected  without  evil  results  following.  Of  these  two 
sides,  the  psychological  is  the  basis.     The  child's  own  instincts  and 


96     EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

powers  furnish  the  material  and  give  the  starting-point  for  all  educa- 
tion. Save  as  the  efforts  of  the  educator  connect  with  some  activity 
which  the  child  is  carrying  on  of  his  own  initiative  independent  of  the 
educator,  education  becomes  reduced  to  a  pressure  from  without.  It 
may,  indeed,  give  certain  external  results,  but  cannot  truly  be  called 
educative.  Without  insight  into  the  psychological  structure  and  ac- 
tivities of  the  individual,  the  educative  process  will,  therefore,  be 
haphazard  and  arbitrary.  .  .  . 

I  believe  that  knowledge  of  social  conditions,  of  the  present  state  of 
civilization  is  necessary  in  order  properly  to  interpret  the  child's  powers. 
The  child  has  his  own  instincts  and  tendencies,  but  we  do  not  know 
what  these  mean  until  we  can  translate  them  into  their  social  equiva- 
lents. We  must  be  able  to  carry  them  back  into  a  social  past  and  see 
them  as  the  inheritance  of  previous  race  activities.  We  must  also  be 
able  to  project  them  into  the  future  to  see  what  their  outcome  and  end 
will  be.  In  the  illustration  just  used,  it  is  the  ability  to  see  in  the  child's 
babblings  the  promise  and  potency  of  a  future  social  intercourse  and 
conversation  which  enables  one  to  deal  in  the  proper  way  with  that 
instinct. 

I  believe  that  the  psychological  and  social  sides  are  organically  re- 
lated, and  that  education  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  compromise  between 
the  two,  or  a  superimposition  of  one  upon  the  other.  .  .  .  The  only 
possible  adjustment  which  we  can  give  to  the  child  under  existing  con- 
ditions is  that  which  arises  through  putting  him  in  complete  possession 
of  all  his  powers.  It  is  impossible  to  prepare  the  child  for  any  precise 
set  of  conditions.  To  prepare  him  for  the  future  life  means  to  give 
him  command  of  himself;  it  means  so  to  train  him  that  he  will  have 
the  full  and  ready  use  of  all  his  capacities,  that  his  eye  and  ear  and 
hand  may  be  tools  ready  to  command,  that  his  judgment  may  be  capa- 
ble of  grasping  the  conditions  under  which  it  has  to  work,  and  the 
executive  forces  be  trained  to  act  economically  and  efficiently.  It  is 
impossible  to  reach  this  sort  of  adjustment  save  as  constant  regard  is 
had  to  the  individual's  own  powers,  tastes,  and  interests — save,  that 
is,  as  education  is  continually  converted  into  psychological  terms. 

In  sum,  I  believe  that  the  individual  who  is  to  be  educated  is  a 
social  individual,  and  that  society  is  an  organic  union  of  individuals. 
.  .  .  Education,  therefore,  must  begin  with  a  psychological  insight 
into  the  child's  capacities,  interests,  and  habits.  It  must  be  controlled 
at  every  point  by  reference  to  these  same  considerations.  These  pow- 
ers, interests,  and  habits  must  be  continually  interpreted — we  must 
know  what  they  mean.  They  must  be  translated  into  terms  of  their 
social  equivalents — into  terms  of  what  they  are  capable  of  in  the  way 
of  social  service. 


NATIVE    ENDOWMENT    INSTINCT  97 


SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Would  a  kitten  learn  to  catch  mice  if  it  never  saw  adult  cats  do  so? 
2.  Would  canaries  learn  to  sing  if  they  never  heard  adult  birds  sing?  3. 
Mention  some  instinctive  reactions  you  have  observed  in  little  children. 
4.  Would  girls  behave  differently  from  boys  in  any  particulars  if  conven- 
tionalities did  not  teach  them?  5.  Is  there  any  psychological  correctness 
in  saying  of  some  boy,  "He's  all  boy"  ?  6.  Do  some  pupils  seem  to  "take 
naturally"  to  certain  subjects?  7.  Do  some  boys  and  girls  learn  to  swim 
much  more  rapidly  than  others?     Why?     8.  Why  do  youths  fall  in  love? 

9.  How  should  the  fighting  instinct  in  boys  be  treated?  10,  Is  there  any 
relation  between  instincts  and  interests?  11.  Name  an  instinct  of  special 
help  in  nature  study;  in  manual  training;  in  high-school  literature.  12. 
On  the  basis  of  nascent  periods  what  kinds  of  literature  would  be  desirable 
for  first-grade  pupils?  for  sixth-grade  pupils?  for  high-school  pupils? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  VIII. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  HI. 

3.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  III,  IV. 

4.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chaps.  VIII,  IX,  X. 

5.  Dewey,  The  School  and  Society,  chap.  II. 

6.  O'Shea,  Mental  Development  and  Education,  chaps.  I,  II. 

7.  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  chap.  II. 

8.  Thorndike,  Education,  chap.  V. 

9.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  HI. 

10.  Watson  (Jennings,  Meyer,  and  Thomas),  Suggestions  of  Modern  Science 

Concerning  Education,  chap.  II. 


PART  III 
MODES  OF  LEARNING  AND  BEHAVIOR 


CHAPTER  VII 
EDUCATION  MEANS  ESTABLISHING  MODES  OF  BEHAVIOR 

Behavior  the  Goal  of  Education. — It  has  been  well  said  that 
education  should  not  have  for  its  end  to  teach  men  to  know 
what  they  do  not  know,  but  to  teach  men  to  behave  as  they 
do  not  behave.  Education  has  too  often  been  considered  a 
passive  process,  a  pouring  in  of  Information  in  order  that 
pupils  may  know.  It  is  rather  a  dynamic  process,  a  process 
of  providing  stimuli  which  are  to  awaken  appropriate  re- 
sponses. All  life  is  evaluated  in  terms  of  behavior.  The  sole 
function  of  consciousness  is  to  determine  behavior.  The 
problem  of  education  is  to  control  and  direct  behavior.  Wat- 
son says: 

Psychology,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  is  a  study  in  behavior;  the 
problem  of  the  schoohoom  and  of  the  laboratory  is  to  find  out  what  an 
individual  can  instinctively  do,  and  what  he  can  be  trained  to  do,  and 
the  methods  which  will  lead  him  most  easily  and  quickly  to  do  both 
those  things  which  society  demands  of  him  and  the  things  which  he 
alone  as  an  individual  can  do.  {Suggestions  of  Modern  Science  Con- 
cerning Education,  p.  54.) 

Expression  an  Index  to  Mind. — The  only  means  we  have  of 
studying  the  mind  of  another  is  through  his  various  expres- 
sions. Mind  discloses  itself  to  others  only  by  expression,  as 
in  talking,  writing,  drawing,  painting,  constructing  machines 
or  controlling  them.  Efficiency  of  mind  is  judged  wholly  by 
the  outward  expression  revealed  to  the  view  of  the  world.  A 
student's  knowledge  of  mathematics  or  psychology  must  be 
judged  by  what  he  says  or  writes;  one's  knowledge  of  art  by 
what  he  can  produce.  We  do  not  really  know  whether  an- 
other can  sing  or  play  the  piano  until  he  manifests  it  in  ex- 
pression.    A  poetic  soul  is  unknown  until  it  bursts  into  song; 


I02         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

an  author's  ability  to  write  may  properly  be  challenged  until 
he  gives  an  actual  demonstration.  Similarly,  an  engineer  must 
exhibit  his  skill,  an  architect  his  plan,  a  general  his  general- 
ship, a  statesman  his  statecraft,  in  some  objective  results.  In 
fact,  we  know  nothing  of  the  perceptions,  memories,  emotions, 
reasonings,  choosings,  willings,  hopes,  joys,  and  sorrows  of 
others  except  as  they  give  expression  to  them  through  some 
muscular  activity.  Another  may  love  us  ever  so  tenderly  or 
hate  us  ever  so  bitterly,  but  unless  we  detect  some  of  his  out- 
ward expressions  of  it  we  are  entirely  oblivious  of  the  fact. 
To  illustrate,  a  man  is  angry.  How  do  others  know  it? 
Solely  by  his  expression.  He  may  clench  his  fist,  knit  his 
brows,  gnash  his  teeth,  raise  his  arm  to  strike,  utter  an  oath 
in  a  major  key,  if  he  believes  himself  stronger  than  his  foe;  if 
inferior,  he  may  whisper  in  impotent  rage  and  skulk  away,  be- 
cause incapable  of  defense  or  retaliation.  Another  angry  man 
might  express  himself  in  a  more  indirect  but  no  less  effective 
manner  by  calling  the  police,  waylaying  his  enemy,  going  to 
war,  writing  articles  of  denunciation  which  would  bring  social 
reprobation  upon  his  enemy,  or  waging  a  war  of  ballots  which 
would  express  indignation  and  tend  to  secure  retribution  and 
reform.  The  enemy  might  be  an  individual  or  a  violation  of 
principle.  Again,  consider  the  various  manifestations  of  fear. 
The  child  may  run  with  breathless  haste,  eyes  dilated,  tears 
streaming,  heart  palpitating,  face  flushed,  or  it  may  be 
blanched  and  palsied.  A  mother  immersed  in  grief  o^^er  the 
loss  of  her  loved  little  ones  may  be  hysterical,  or  speak  with 
voice  trembling,  quivering  lips,  have  a  pallid  countenance,  and 
be  depressed  almost  to  complete  paralysis.  In  any  case,  the 
emotions  are  expressed  in  some  form  of  action,  sometimes  de- 
cidedly external;  in  others  more  internal,  repressed,  and  per- 
haps much  diffused,  but  the  only  means  we  have  of  under- 
standing them  is  through  some  form  of  motor  expression. 

James  says  {Talks  to  Teachers,  p.  26):  **The  brain,  so  far  as 
we  understand  it,  is  given  us  for  practical  behavior.  Every 
current  that  runs  into  it  from  skin  or  eye  or  ear  runs  out  again 
into  muscles,  glands,  or  viscera,  and  helps  to  adapt  the  animal 


EDUCATION   MEANS   MODES   OF   BEHAVIOR        103 

to  the  environment  from  which  the  current  came.  It  there- 
fore generahzes  and  simpHfies  our  view  to  treat  the  brain  Hfe 
and  the  mental  Hfe  as  having  one  fundamental  kind  of  pur- 
pose." He  says  that  even  the  "inessential,  'unpractical'  ac- 
tivities are  themselves  far  more  connected  with  our  behavior 
and  our  adaptation  to  the  environment  than  at  first  sight 
might  appear.  No  truth,  however  abstract,  is  ever  perceived, 
that  will  not  probably  at  some  time  influence  our  earthly  ac- 
tion. You  must  remember  that,  when  I  talk  of  action  here, 
I  mean  action  in  the  widest  sense.  I  mean  speech,  I  mean 
writing,  I  mean  yeses  and  noes,  and  tendencies  'from'  things 
and  tendencies  '  toward'  things,  and  emotional  determinations; 
and  I  mean  them  in  the  future  as  well  as  in  the  immediate 
present.  As  I  talk  here,  and  you  listen,  it  might  seem  as  if 
no  action  followed.  You  might  call  it  a  purely  theoretic  proc- 
ess, with  no  practical  result.  But  it  must  have  a  practical 
result.  It  cannot  take  place  at  all  and  leave  your  conduct 
unaffected.  If  not  to-day,  then  on  some  far  future  day,  you 
will  answer  some  question  differently  by  reason  of  what  you 
are  thinking  now.  Some  of  you  will  be  led  by  my  words  into 
new  veins  of  inquiry,  into  reading  special  books.  These  will 
develop  your  opinion,  whether  for  or  against.  That  opinion 
will  in  turn  be  expressed,  will  receive  criticism  from  others  in 
your  environment,  and  will  affect  your  standing  in  their  eyes. 
We  cannot  escape  our  destiny,  which  is  practical;  and  even 
our  most  theoretic  faculties  contribute  to  its  working  out." 

Motor  Activity  in  Relation  to  Health  or  Disease. — An  abun- 
dance of  well-controlled  movements,  as  exhibited  in  play  or 
interesting  work,  are  a  sure  sign  of  healthfulness — physical  and 
mental.  On  the  other  hand,  an  excess  of  unco-ordinated 
movements  is  a  sure  symptom  of  disease.  We  should  always 
be  suspicious  of  twitchings  of  the  eye  or  facial  muscles,  un- 
steadiness of  the  body,  head,  hand,  or  fingers,  or  of  stammer- 
ing and  stuttering.  Likewise  we  should  study  closely  the 
child  who  drums  incessantly  with  the  fingers  or  the  feet,  who 
is  restless,  constantly  changing  position  to  no  purpose,  rolling 
the  eyeballs,  or  drooping  the  head;  whose  arms  hang  limp  by 


I04    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

the  side,  who  drags  his  feet  and  stumbles;  who  cannot  throw 
a  ball,  run,  trundle  a  hoop.  Such  a  child  is  either  fatigued, 
has  not  slept  sufficiently,  or  is  ill  nourished.  Children  are 
often  excitable,  passionate,  melancholy,  and  fretful.  During 
sleep  such  children  are  seldom  in  repose;  they  grind  the  teeth, 
are  troubled  by  incessant  twitching  of  the  muscles,  are  dis- 
turbed by  dreams,  frequently  have  night- terrors,  and  some- 
times are  troubled  with  somnambulism.  A  child  in  perfect 
health  is  also  full  of  movement,  but  the  actions  are  controlled. 
He  runs  about  from  dawn  till  dark,  plays,  capers,  chatters, 
laughs,  and  is  constantly  giving  natural  expression  to  states 
of  mind  and  body.  A  child  who  is  ill  or  excessively  fatigued 
does  not  frisk  about,  ceases  play,  mopes  or  curls  up  in  a  cor- 
ner and  talks  little,  laughs  less,  or  is  quiet  until  normal  con- 
ditions are  restored.  A  normal,  healthy  child  is  not  quiet  a 
single  moment  of  his  waking  life. 

Inhibition. — Inhibition  is  really  a  form  of  activity,  although 
it  does  not  issue  in  movement  but  in  the  stoppage  of  move- 
ment. The  child  who  learns  to  sit  still  in  school  at  proper 
times,  to  check  the  impulses  to  laugh,  to  whistle,  to  talk,  and 
to  shout  is  exhibiting  action — controlled  action.  Similarly  the 
one  who  refrains  from  saying  malicious  things  about  neigh- 
bors who  may  deserve  it,  who  spreads  the  mantle  of  charity 
over  real  faults  of  others,  who  keeps  his  hand  from  his  neigh- 
bor's pocket,  who  is  faithful  to  a  trust  confided  to  him,  is 
manifesting  activity  no  less  genuine  and  real  than  if  he  had 
acted  upon  all  possible  impulses  of  the  moment.  The  child  in 
training  has  to  learn  to  master  a  multitude  of  impulses  to  for- 
bidden actions.  Naturally  he  would  like  to  whisper,  run,  and 
look  out  of  the  window,  or  play  with  his  marbles,  but  a  set  of 
developed,  warring  impulses  restrains  him.  The  child  is  con- 
tinually beset  with  stimuli  which  allure  him  from  the  tasks 
which  we  set  him.  Until  he  has  developed  a  great  many  hab- 
its of  acting  and  doing,  the  chances  are  that  the  momentary 
stimuli  will  succeed  in  bringing  about  corresponding  reactions, 
and  the  things  we  desire  him  to  do  are  forgotten.  Hence  the 
necessity  of  constant  supervision  of  the  child  if  we  wish  him 


EDUCATION   MEANS   MODES   OF   BEHAVIOR        105 

to  succeed  in  resisting  undesirable  stimuli  which  we  select  for 
his  training.  If  we  can  only  make  the  desired  stimuli  as  in- 
teresting as  the  undesirable,  alluring  ones,  we  may  secure 
spontaneous  responses. 

The  Purpose  of  Motor  Activity  in  Education. — The  child's 
nervous  system  is  ready  to  respond  to  a  great  variety  of  stim- 
uli with  equal  readiness.  One  of  the  most  important  tasks  of 
the  teacher  is  to  select  desirable  stimuli  and  keep  them  beat- 
ing upon  the  child  until  settled  pathways  of  discharge  have 
been  established  and  at  the  same  time  to  shield  him  from  un- 
desirable environment.  With  age,  developed  habits  of  action, 
and  fixity  instead  of  plasticity,  there  is  much  less  possibility  of 
being  influenced  by  new  forces.  Here  is  an  opportunity  of 
education.  A  child  can  learn  a  new  movement,  say  skating, 
much  more  readily  than  the  adult,  because  the  child's  nervous 
system  is  so  sensitive  to  many  stimuli,  while  the  adult  has  be- 
come impervious  to  all  that  do  not  fit  in  with  his  modes  of 
action.  Education  deals  largely  with  the  problem  of  pro- 
ducing modifications  of  the  mind.  As  the  mind  and  its  modi- 
fications can  only  be  known  through  external  expression,  it 
becomes  highly  important  to  consider  how  ideas  are  corre- 
lated with  expression,  and  how  stimuli  may  be  utilized  to  pro- 
duce efficient  reactions,  and  how  in  turn  reactions  may  influ- 
ence intellectual  processes.  Unfortunately  the  formalists  have 
overlooked  the  necessities  and  importance  of  expression  in 
education  and  have  devoted  all  their  attention  to  the  absorp- 
tive process. 

It  is  an  auspicious  sign  that  present-day  educators  are  seek- 
ing earnestly  for  ways  and  means  of  incorporating  into  the 
formal  curriculum  more  and  more  work  which  involves  motor 
activity.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that  efficient  education 
is  not  a  process  of  cramming  words  into  the  child's  memory. 
Ideas  are  incomplete  until  they  are  real-ized.  The  most  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  many  ideas  is  this  motor  process.  Most 
ideas  are  of  little  consequence  until  they  find  application  in 
some  form  of  outward  expression  or  influence  some  activity, 
at  least  indirectly.     "We  learn  by  doing"  is  a  trite  statement, 


io6    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

but  only  half  understood  by  many,  and  heeded  in  practice  by 
still  fewer.  However,  the  slogan  ''From  impression  to  ex- 
pression" is  becoming  an  important  watchword  of  modern 
teaching.  It  needs  to  be  supplemented  by  the  statement 
"Through  expression  to  clear  impression."  But  it  is  only  just 
beginning  to  be  realized  that  the  subject  of  motor  education 
demands  special  consideration.  Even  many  of  the  advocates 
of  motor  training  have  in  mind  only  the  skill  resulting  from 
handiwork.  The  stock  arguments  made  in  favor  of  manual 
activities  are  somewhat  as  follows:  "Manual  training,  handi- 
crafts, and  domestic  science  furnish  activities  which  reveal 
inaccuracies  of  execution;  they  give  opportunity  to  make  fin- 
ished products;  they  furnish  physical  exercise;  they  develop 
an  appreciation  of  the  dignity  of  labor;  they  enable  the  child 
to  follow  his  interests,  etc."  These  are  all  valid,  but  they  do 
not  touch  the  most  fundamental  reasons. 

That  every  mental  process  has  a  motor  accompaniment  is  a 
singular  and  significant  fact.  Experiments  go  to  show  that 
with  every  slightest  thought  delicate  recording  apparatus  at- 
tached to  the  body  may  reveal  changes  in  thought  through 
the  changes  in  the  tracings  made  by  the  apparatus.  Even  our 
aesthetic,  emotional  states  in  contemplating  a  work  of  art  prob- 
ably excite  muscular  adjustments  which  would  be  revealed 
if  properly  adjusted  instruments  could  be  applied  to  the  body. 
Muscular  adjustments  are  so  closely  interwoven  with  all  men- 
tal activities  that  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  they  are  a 
part  of  the  entire  process  which  could  not  come  to  full  fruition 
without  them.  Our  ideas  of  space  have  been  gained  by  mus- 
cular measurements,  and  when  we  think  of  space  we  cannot 
dissociate  the  muscular  correlates  from  the  totality  of  the 
idea-process.  What  would  be  our  idea  of  skating  without  the 
various  muscular  accompaniments?  A  lecture  on  skating, 
even  illustrated  with  pictorial  representations,  or,  still  better, 
with  demonstrations  of  the  process,  would  never  give  one  a 
real  idea  of  skating.  Similarly,  lectures  on  penmanship  and 
drawing  unaccompanied  by  muscular  co-ordinations  on  the 
part  of  the  child  himself  would  never  teach  him  how  to  write. 


EDUCATION   MEANS   MODES   OF   BEHAVIOR        107 

The  only  way  to  learn  to  write,  is  to  write;  to  learn  to  saw 
boards,  is  to  saw  boards. 

Some  Fundamental  Motor  Concepts. — As  the  child  learns 
the  use  of  its  arms,  accomplishes  the  art  of  creeping,  and  the 
still  more  complex  art  of  walking,  his  conceptions  of  space 
grow  wonderfully.  A  child  not  allowed  to  creep  or  to  walk  is 
being  deprived  of  a  most  fundamental  birthright.  Like  all 
individuals  who  never  travel,  he  remains  provincial.  These 
principles  should  receive  abundant  application  in  every-day 
education  and  in  schoolroom  practice.  When  pupils  are 
learning  the  tables  of  denominate  numbers,  instead  of  going 
through  mere  word  mouthings,  they  should  be  required  to 
lift  weights,  and  measure  distances,  areas,  and  volumes.  An 
inch,  a  foot,  a  yard,  a  mile,  an  acre,  a  cubic  foot,  a  cord  should 
come  to  stand  for  definitely  imaged  realities.  A  boy  who  has 
sawed  wood  will  not  forget  what  a  cord  is,  nor  will  one  who 
has  walked  miles,  and  around  and  over  acres,  be  dependent 
upon  verbal  memories  for  his  knowledge  of  these  units.  If 
pupils  are  studying  the  table  of  wood  measure  they  should 
actually  measure  piles  of  wood.  My  own  knowledge  of  a 
cord  of  wood  was  made  exceedingly  tangible  and  vivid.  Days 
and  weeks  at  the  wood-pile  and  in  the  forest  chopping  cord- 
wood,  supplemented  by  loading  and  hauling  the  wood  to  mar- 
ket over  rough  roads  gave  me  such  a  personal  knowledge  of 
every  element  in  the  problem  that  the  ideas  will  be  mine  as 
long  as  time  shall  permit  my  brain  and  muscles  to  function. 
Not  every  boy,  and  still  less  every  girl,  has  need  of  making 
wood  measure  so  clear,  real,  and  vivid,  but  the  method  of  real 
learning  therein  illustrated  is  applicable  to  every  subject.  All 
ideas  studied  should  be  gained,  as  far  as  possible,  through 
actual  experience.  The  more  nearly  the  experience  grows  out 
of  life's  activities  and  interests,  the  better. 

If  an  idea  of  "sixteen  ounces  make  one  pound"  is  to  be 
gained,  the  only  real  way  is  primarily  by  lifting  or  "hefting," 
and  secondarily  by  seeing  the  relations.  A  knowledge  of  an 
inch,  a  rod,  a  mile,  an  acre  can  only  be  gained  by  actual  per- 
sonal measurement.     I  once  visited  a  high-school  class  which 


io8        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

was  studying  the  United  States  system  of  land  survey.  They 
were  talking  glibly  about  acres,  sections,  and  square  miles. 
Suspecting  that  their  knowledge  consisted  of  mere  words,  I 
asked:  "How  long  would  it  take  you  to  walk  around  a  sec- 
tion of  land?"  "Fifteen  minutes,"  was  the  instant  reply  of 
one  pupil.  My  belief  was  confirmed,  and  I  repHed:  "You 
must  be  a  sprinter."  The  farmer  boy's  knowledge  of  acres  is 
gained  by  following  the  plough  up  and  down  the  furrows,  day 
after  day,  fencing  in  an  acre,  ten  acres,  or  fifty  acres,  mowing 
the  hay,  cradling  the  grain,  binding  the  sheaves,  even  by 
grubbing  out  the  trees  and  clearing  the  land.  Of  course  acres 
are  not  the  only  concepts  worth  while  knowing.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  we  might  go  through  life  ignorant  of  the  con- 
cepts and  be  highly  respected  and  intelligent,  but  we  should 
have  other  concepts  which  are  exactly  as  definite  as  the  farmer 
boy's  of  acres,  rods,  and  sections.  The  example  illustrates 
the  end  and  the  means  to  be  employed  in  gaining  any  kind  of 
real  knowledge. 

The  task  of  education  has  been  considered  too  largely  as 
one  of  instructing  the  child  so  that  he  may  know  about  things. 
But  a  great  part  of  a  child's  education  should  be  concerned 
with  teaching  him  to  do  things,  to  put  into  execution  ideas 
understood,  sometimes  even  to  utilize  ideas  and  processes 
which  are  vaguely  or  not  at  all  understood.  It  is  highly  im- 
portant that  the  child  be  able  to  stand  well,  to  run  easily,  to 
sit  properly,  to  breathe  correctly,  to  sleep  adequately  and 
under  hygienic  conditions,  to  move  gracefully,  to  close  doors 
quietly,  to  avoid  awkwardness,  to  be  at  ease  in  company.  He 
cannot  claim  to  be  properly  educated  without  having  devel- 
oped the  habit  of  careful  attention  to  health  and  personal 
appearance;  unless  he  habitually  observes  good  manners,  hab- 
itually manifests  politeness  and  all  other  signs  of  good  breed- 
ing; not  without  regularly  using  the  mother  tongue  easily, 
accurately,  pleasantly,  and  forcefully.  Along  with  these 
should  be  thoroughly  acquired  the  habits  of  right  moral  re- 
sponses and  a  cheerful,  happy,  altruistic  attitude  toward  life's 
activities  in  general.     All  these  come  only  after  much  prac- 


EDUCATION   MEANS   MODES   OF   BEHAVIOR        109 

tice,  and  they  are  imperfect  until  they  become  largely  auto- 
matic. They  must  have  become,  not  second  nature,  but  pri- 
mary nature.  Along  with  his  play  the  child  should  have  the 
''work  habit"  thoroughly  ingrained,  and  much  of  this  work 
should  be  manual.  Manual  training  in  the  schools  and  foot- 
ball and  gymnasium  exercises  should  supplement  the  motor 
training  afforded  by  useful  occupations  and  not  supplant  it. 

The  Laboratory. — Not  only  do  our  modern  laboratory  meth- 
ods furnish  sensory  experiences,  but  also  opportunities  for 
motor  accompaniments.  Whole  classes  of  ideas  would  be 
vague  and  incomplete  without  the  knowledge  furnished 
through  the  motor  activities.  The  laboratory  is  not  only  a 
place  for  observing  things,  but  also  a  place  for  doing  and  mak- 
ing, a  place  for  labor — -a  ^^lahor-atory.'"  The  engineering  stu- 
dent is  obliged  to  make  models,  and  to  construct  apparatus 
and  machines.  He  is  continually  engaged  in  making,  map- 
ping, and  charting,  and  where  actual  constructive  representa- 
tion is  not  possible  or  feasible,  plans  are  drawn  to  scale,  and 
in  manifold  ways,  either  primarily  or  secondarily,  the  muscles 
are  employed  in  gaining,  vivifying,  and  fixing  ideas  of  reali- 
ties. The  modern  medical  student  employs  eye,  ear,  touch, 
and  every  sort  of  motor  experience  possible.  Not  only  must 
he  see  and  touch,  but  he  must  train  himself  to  delicacy  of 
measurement  in  locating  various  portions  of  the  anatomy. 
Touch  is  not  of  the  highest  use  when  passive.  Active  touch 
refines  exceedingly  our  passive  tactile  perceptions.  Even  the 
delicacy  of  visual  perceptions  are  largely  due  to  eye-move- 
ments. Students  in  all  laboratory  courses  should  be  continu- 
ally engaged  in  making,  mapping,  charting,  and  constructing. 

Various  Means  of  Motor  Training. — In  considering  motor 
education  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  there  are  manifold 
forms  of  motor  activity  besides  those  connected  with  the 
manual  arts.  All  activities  which  give  control  of  the  body 
and  secure  poise  are  important  to  cultivate.  Even  without 
possessing  manual-training  departments  as  such,  the  school 
possesses  many  opportunities  for  important  motor  training. 
Walking,  standing,  sitting,  silence,  orderliness,  good  manners, 


no    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

politeness,  all  demand  the  development  of  motor  habits.  The 
plays  and  games  can  be  turned  to  good  account.  Writing, 
drawing,  map-making,  constructing  apparatus  and  setting  it 
up,  conducting  experiments,  all  demand  a  high  type  of  manual 
training.  A  musical  education  depends  largely  upon  skill  re- 
sulting from  motor  education.  Apart  from  the  role  performed 
by  the  sensitized  ear,  musical  skill  is  entirely  a  matter  of  train- 
ing muscles  to  respond  in  delicate  co-ordinations.  Singing 
and  playing  any  musical  instrument  require  motor  training 
of  a  high  degree. 

Motor  Aspect  of  Language. — Every  idea-process  gets  inter- 
woven with  a  great  variety  of  muscular  co-ordinations,  and 
among  the  most  prominent  are  those  involved  in  our  use  of 
language.  The  words  and  symbols  are  not  only  means  of 
mental  economy,  expression,  and  of  understanding  others,  but 
they  become  in  reality  a  part  of  the  ideational  process.  The 
idea  could  never  have  attained  the  same  clearness  without 
the  use  of  words;  in  fact,  full-fledged  abstractions  could  not 
have  been  gained  at  all  without  the  use  of  language,  and  they 
cannot  be  revived  without  employing  language  symbols. 
Consequently,  in  considering  motor  training  we  must  not 
overlook  these  most  refined  of  all  motor  relations  between 
thought  and  language.  There  must  be  adequate  opportunity 
for  expressing  ideas  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the 
ideas  permanent,  but — equally  important  and  more  funda- 
mental— for  the  purpose  of  making  the  ideas  themselves  clear 
and  vivid.  Real  ideas  are  not  something  added  to  one's  mind, 
but  a  part  of  the  mind  itself.  Halleck  says  to  speak  of  "motor 
ideas"  is  as  tautological  as  to  speak  of  ''wet  water."  One  of 
the  scientific  purposes  of  the  recitation  is  to  afford  opportunity 
for  expression.  The  recitation  may  demand  oral  expression, 
dramatization,  written  exercises,  drawing,  constructing  appa- 
ratus, moulding,  or  some  form  of  manual  training.  The  motor 
activity  serves  not  only  to  fix  ideas,  but  also  to  clarify  and 
enlarge  them,  and  even  to  furnish  new  ideas.  To  abolish  the 
recitation  and  depend  entirely  upon  the  absorptive  process  is 
to  fail  to  utilize  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  education. 


EDUCATION   MEANS   MODES   OF   BEHAVIOR        iii 

Vocal  speech,  for  example,  requires  the  nicest  sort  of  motor 
adjustments,  and  the  ability  to  talk  fluently,  accurately,  and 
in  a  pleasing  manner  is  no  mean  accomplishment.  The  pos- 
session of  this  ability  implies  accuracy  and  clearness  of  ideas 
as  well  as  training  in  expression.  Oral  speech  is  often  one's 
most  valuable  asset.  It  Is  usually  the  best  Index  of  what  we 
know  and  what  we  are.  No  motor  training  is  harder  to  ac- 
quire, rarer  to  be  observed,  and  worthier  of  cultivation  than 
perfect  oral  speech.  Much  time  In  the  child's  early  life  is 
occupied  with  acquiring  speech.  The  process  Is  largely  one 
of  subconscious  Imitation,  but  the  results  are  no  less  certain 
and  valuable  than  when  gained  through  painful,  conscious 
attention  to  the  process.  The  child  who  hears  correct  lan- 
guage in  the  home  Is  fortunate  indeed.  He  Is  saved  many 
painful  hours  of  unlearning.  The  schools  also  are  relieved  of 
the  burden  of  undoing  undesirable  habits.  Language  train- 
ing In  the  lower  school  grades  should  be  largely  oral,  and  is  a 
fundamental  problem  in  motor  adjustment.  When  teaching 
written  expression,  of  course,  the  problem  is  also  one  of  motor 
training,  and  even  a  most  important  kind  of  manual  training. 
Learning  a  foreign  language  demands  the  acquisition  of  many 
motor  adjustments.  The  memorizing  of  a  vocabulary  Is  for 
certain  types  of  Individuals  very  largely  a  task  of  motor 
memory.  Acquiring  accuracy  and  facility  in  speaking  the 
foreign  language  Is  pre-eminently  a  motor  task.  To  write  It 
demands  still  other  muscular  training. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  How  can  you  tell  when  a  pupil  knows  his  lesson?  2.  How  do  you 
know  the  mental  experiences  of  another  person?  3.  In  what  sense  is  edu- 
cation a  matter  of  training  the  nervous  and  muscular  systems?  4.  In 
what  sense  is  education  a  matter  of  selecting  stimuli  so  as  to  secure  certain 
responses?  5.  Give  an  illustration  of  "education  by  doing,"  in  arithme- 
tic, writing,  history,  civics,  driving  an  automobile.  6,  Suggest  ways  in 
which  the  school  could  afford  more  opportunities  for  education  by  doing. 

7.  What  relation  is  there  between  motor  training  and  race  intelligence? 

8.  Apply  the  idea  of  education  by  doing  to  the  training  of  defectives.  9. 
Distinguish  between  motor  education  and  manual  training.  10.  Do  farmer 
boys  need  motor  training?     Why? 


112         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXI. 

2.  Colvin,  The  Educative  Process,  chap.  IV, 

3.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior.    Entire  book. 

4.  Dewey,  Schools  of  To-morrow,  chap.  VI. 

5.  Parker,  Methods  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools,  chap.  VI,  XI. 

6.  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behaviorist,  chaps.  VIII, 

IX,  X. 

7.  Watson,  Suggestions  of  Modern  Science  Concerning  Education,  chap.  II. 

8.  Woodworth,  Psychology:  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chaps.  I,  III,  IV,  V. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
FUNDAMENTAL  ACQUISITIONS:  SENSE-PERCEPTIONS 

**  All  Knowledge  Takes  Its  Rise  in  the  Senses." — This  ex- 
pression was  stated  and  emphasized  by  Comenlus  long  ago, 
but  even  now  we  have  hardly  awakened  to  its  importance. 
There  are  many  teachers  still  who  proceed  as  if  they  believe 
that  all  knowledge  comes  through  words.  There  are  those 
who  try  to  have  pupils  get  meaning  from  reading  words  for 
which  the  pupils  have  no  background  of  sensory  experience, 
and  then  they  wonder  why  pupils  read  so  poorly  and  with  so 
little  understanding.  There  are  those  also  who  teach  geogra- 
phy as  a  matter  of  definitions  and  book  descriptions,  who 
teach  physics  without  laboratory  or  experiments,  who  have 
pupils  read  about  chemical  action  instead  of  producing  it  and 
observing  it,  who  try  to  teach  civics  by  requiring  pupils  to 
memorize  the  constitution  verbatim  without  ever  witnessing  a 
concrete  illustration  of  its  workings. 

Necessity  of  Direct  Experience. — To  show  strikingly  how 
important  the  education  of  a  sense  is,  we  may  refer  to  cases 
where  persons  have  been  blind  and  have  later  received  the 
power  of  sight  through  an  operation.  A  boy  who  had  thus 
been  made  to  see  was  shown  the  pet  cat  with  which  he  was  so 
famihar.  He  stared  at  it  in  amazement,  without  being  able 
to  comprehend.  Finally  he  took  hold  of  the  cat  and  felt  her 
all  over  while  looking  at  her.  He  gained  a  new  idea  entirely, 
and  said:  "Now,  kitty,  after  this  I  shall  be  able  to  know  you 
when  I  see  you."  Ziehen  gives  an  illustration  which  shows 
that  modes  of  perceiving  become  so  persistent  that  it  may 
even  be  impossible  to  establish  the  mode  '  *  natural ' '  to  normal 
persons.     He  writes: 

A  certain  individual,  who  had  been  born  blind,  was  unable  to  form 
any  idea  of  a  square,  even  upon  seeing  it  after  his  sight  had  been 
restored  by  an  operation,  until  he  began  to  perceive  a  sensation  in  the 

113 


114         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

tips  of  his  fingers,  as  though  he  were  really  engaged  in  touching  the 
object  at  which  he  was  looking.  The  patient  had  constant  recourse 
to  his  sense  of  touch,  just  as  the  normal  man  resorts  to  his  sense  of 
sight  in  the  recognition  of  objects.  {Introduction  to  Physiological  Psy- 
chology, p.  87.)  ■ 

A  similar  case  was  reported  by  Doctor  Miner  from  the  psy- 
chological laboratory  of  the  state  University  of  Iowa.  It  is 
probably  the  best  study  on  record  of  such  cases.  The  sub- 
ject, Miss  W.,  had  complete  cataracts  in  both  eyes,  and  was 
reported  as  blind  from  birth.  At  twenty-two  both  cataracts 
were  removed  by  Doctor  L.  W.  Dean,  professor  of  ophthal- 
mology in  the  University  of  Iowa.  She  had  received  a  high- 
school  education  in  the  state  School  for  the  Blind.  Doctor 
Miner's  investigations  were  conducted  nearly  three  years  after 
sight  was  restored  to  the  right  eye,  and  nearly  two  years  after 
the  operation  on  the  left  eye.  Among  other  tests,  Doctor 
Miner  made  a  careful  study  of  her  stock  of  visual  knowledge, 
and  her  mode  of  acquiring  visual  ideas.  Even  then  she  was 
found  very  deficient  in  these  respects.  In  Doctor  Miner's 
words : 

Miss  W.  was  still  completely  naive  to  many  of  the  normal  visual  ex- 
periences of  an  adult.  She  had  never  looked  through  a  stereoscope, 
opera-glass,  field-glass,  or  telescope.  She  had  never  used  both  eyes 
together  enough  to  find  out  any  differences  between  monocular  and 
binocular  vision.  She  had  not  yet  learned  to  translate  her  visual  im- 
ages into  terms  of  movement  with  any  degree  of  success,  except  in  case 
of  the  most  simple  forms  and  numbers,  or  with  common  objects  of  her 
previous  touch  experience.  She  knew  practically  nothing  about 
drawings  or  pictures.  She  had  not  even  learned  to  identify  people  by 
their  faces;  those  whom  she  thought  she  knew  by  their  features  were 
her  mother,  father,  sister,  a  teacher  at  the  school,  and  the  nurse  who 
was  with  her  during  the  operation.  Although  I  worked  with  her 
every  day  for  over  a  month,  and  she  saw  Doctor  Dean  often,  I  be- 
lieve she  cannot  recognize  either  of  us  by  sight.  Miner,  J.  B.,  ''A 
Case  of  Vision  Acquired  in  Adult  Life,"  Psychological  Review,  Mono- 
graph Supplement,  March,  1905. 

She  recognized  persons  mainly  by  the  sound  of  the  voice. 
She  possessed  an  "all-powerful  impulse  to  explain  anything 
new  by  referring  it  at  once  to  the  language  of  her  sightless 


FUNDAMENTAL  ACQUISITIONS  115 

experience."  In  counting  the  sides  of  a  hexagon,  for  example, 
she  used  some  sort  of  muscular  movement  to  register  each 
number.  "She  would  tap  with  her  fingers,  or  foot,  press  her 
teeth  together,  or  her  tongue  against  her  teeth,  move  her  head, 
regulate  her  breathing,  or  even  slightly  wink  at  each  corner, 
in  order  to  register  that  as  number  one  before  passing  to  the 
next."  For  a  long  time  shadows  seemed  like  real  objects  to 
her,  and  she  often  walked  around  them.  Because  she  could 
not  judge  distances  accurately,  she  frequently  upset  dishes  on 
the  table.  In  learning  through  reading  or  hearing,  she  re- 
peated everything  to  herself,  translating  everything  into 
motor  terms. 

If  a  child  is  blind  from  birth  It  is  therefore  deprived  of  a 
class  of  experiences  which  can  never  be  acquired  through  any 
other  means.  Stop  the  ears  of  the  same  child  and  another 
gateway  of  the  soul  Is  closed.  Suppose  the  same  child  is  de- 
prived of  the  senses  of  taste,  of  smell,  of  temperature,  of 
weight,  of  direction,  of  touch — and  all  the  rest.  All  of  the 
gateways  to  the  soul  are  closed  and  the  child  grows  up  mind- 
less— an  idiot.  Each  sense  supplies  the  mind  with  informa- 
tion of  its  own  particular  sort.  The  eye  Is  fitted  to  respond 
to  waves  of  light,  the  ear  to  waves  of  sound,  and  no  other 
part  of  the  body  can  act  as  a  substitute.  The  eye  is  dead  to 
waves  of  sound,  the  ear  to  light,  and  the  sense  of  touch  does 
not  respond  to  odors.  One  who  is  deprived  of  a  single  sense, 
or  who  is  defective  in  that  sense,  is  caused  to  limp  mentally 
just  as  surely  as  one  must  limp  when  a  leg  is  amputated. 
Helen  Keller  has  never  really  known  color.  She  knows  noth- 
ing of  the  melodies  of  sounds  in  nature  as  we  who  hear  know 
of  them.  It  should  be  remembered,  also,  that  exercise  of  the 
senses  must  be  secured  at  the  right  time.  If  early  life  passes 
without  ample  opportunity  for  sensory  exercise,  arrested  de- 
velopment ensues,  almost  as  disastrous  as  if  the  centres  had 
been  destroyed. 

Earliest  Sensory  Experiences. — The  moment  the  child  is 
ushered  into  the  world  its  sensory  experiences  begin.  By 
force  of  circumstances  the  child  receives  innumerable  stimu- 


ii6         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

latlons  through  light,  sound-waves,  and  physical  contact. 
Myriads  of  stimuli  come  to  the  child  unsought,  many  unde- 
sired  and  many  undesirable.  So  James  said:  "The  world 
presents  itself  to  the  child  as  one  big,  buzzing,  blooming 
confusion !" 

The  percepts  thus  slowly  gained  are  indispensable  to  fur- 
ther higher  attainments.  The  ear  that  is  closed,  the  eye  that 
is  bHnded,  is  not  only  lost  as  an  avenue  of  knowledge,  but  the 
mind  of  the  possessor  is  circumscribed  and  dwarfed  because 
lacking  certain  fundamental  kinds  of  knowledge.  The  con- 
genitally  blind  can  never  know  color,  though  they  learn  its 
entire  nomenclature;  their  knowledge  of  form,  size,  and  per- 
spective is  circumscribed,  while  they  can  never  know  com- 
plex things  as  wholes  as  the  seeing  do.  The  deaf  have  no 
concept  of  sound — only  word  ideas  about  it. 

As  soon  as  a  child  creeps  he  begins  to  get  ideas  of  an  ex- 
tended environment.  With  walking  he  is  put  in  possession 
of  a  means  of  exploring  an  enlarged  world.  During  the  early 
years  the  child  should  come  into  direct  personal  contact  with 
a  large  range  of  objects.  The  field,  forest,  and  mountain 
should  all  be  explored  and  examined.  He  should  literally  and 
figuratively  leave  no  stone  unturned  in  his  investigations  and 
explorations.  What  nonsense  first  to  study  steam-engines, 
telegraphs,  plants,  animals,  birds,  and  rocks  from  books  !  The 
only  excuse  for  book  study  at  all  is  that  we  may  study  things 
not  accessible  and  that  we  may  be  enabled  in  advanced  stages 
to  study  the  object  to  advantage.  Darwin's  epoch-making 
contributions  could  never  have  appeared  had  he  not  exam- 
ined at  first  hand  a  large  part  of  the  material  mentioned.  No 
progress  in  any  line  of  science  or  art  is  ever  made  by  those 
who  have  not  an  observational  knowledge  of  the  objects  of 
their  search.  The  astronomer  sweeps  the  heavens  with  his 
eye,  bringing  to  the  aid  of  his  limited  vision  distance-annihilat- 
ing telescopes,  and  the  biologist  searches  in  the  laboratory 
with  eyes  made  a  thousand  times  acuter  by  the  microscope. 
"Aristotle  knew  the  importance  of  asking  nature  for  facts, 
and  he  induced  his  royal  pupil,  Alexander  the  Great,  to  em- 


FUNDAMENTAL  ACQUISITIONS  117 

ploy  2,000  persons  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  for  the  purpose 
of  gathering  information  concerning  beasts,  birds,  and  rep- 
tiles, whereby  he  was  enabled  to  write  fifty  volumes  upon 
animated  nature.  After  teachers  had  forgotten  his  methods 
they  still  turned  to  his  books  for  the  treasures  which  he 
had  gathered."  (Schaeffer,  Thinking  and  Learning  to  Think, 
p.  61.) 

Meaning  of  Training. — The  main  thing  in  early  sensory 
training  is  exposure  to  the  big  world  of  things  and  guidance 
in  what  to  observe.  Training  should  not  degenerate  into 
formal  gymnastics.  The  conscious  aim  of  the  teacher  should 
be  not  to  train  the  powers  but  to  use  them  intelligently  in 
acquiring  knowledge.  To  have  just  so  much  seeing,  so  much 
hearing,  so  much  smelling,  so  much  tasting,  and  so  much 
finger-bending  each  day  is  the  sheerest  nonsense. 

The  training  begun  before  school-days  should  not  be  aban- 
doned on  entering  school.  Increased  opportunity  for  more 
extended  observations  should  be  afforded.  The  training 
should  become  more  intentional,  more  definite  things  should 
be  seen,  and  descriptions,  at  first  oral,  of  what  is  seen  should 
daily  become  more  accurate;  though  indefiniteness,  vagueness, 
naivete  must  be  expected  through  many  years.  A  great 
variety  of  things  must  be  brought  to  the  child,  when  impossi- 
ble to  take  the  child  to  them.  That  is,  specimens,  samples, 
pictures  of  the  great,  busy  world  should  be  collected  into  mu- 
seums, cabinets,  and  laboratories,  where  children  may  learn 
of  nature,  art,  industries,  marts  of  trade,  commerce,  shipping, 
mining,  etc.  A  chance  to  see  and  examine  the  local  region 
under  competent  guidance  should  be  afforded  every  child. 
For,  unfortunately,  the  pupil  often  first  becomes  acquainted 
with  his  home  locality  through  reading.  The  knowledge  thus 
acquired  never  possesses  the  vividness  and  interest  that  real 
personal  acquaintance  gives  its  possessor.  Field,  forest,  and 
stream  should  be  explored  and  importuned  to  yield  their  se- 
crets. The  children  should,  like  Shakespeare's  Duke,  find 
"  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  running  brooks,  sermons  in  stones, 
and  good  in  everything." 


ii8         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

Objective  Teaching. — Objective  illustration  is  necessary  be- 
cause "all  knowledge  takes  its  rise  in  the  senses."  Objective 
illustrations  should  be  given  whenever  the  elemental  ideas  in 
any  topic  are  not  easily  understood  through  imagination  and  re- 
flection. Their  necessity  is  as  great  in  the  university  as  in  the 
primary  school.  In  the  words  of  Doctor  White,  "the  primary 
ideas  should  be  taught  objectively  in  all  grades  of  school." 
The  meaning  of  primary  or  elemental  ideas  needs  to  be  under- 
stood. The  mind  can  image  any  material  or  any  combination 
of  material  things,  provided  the  elements  have  been  derived 
through  perception.  Once  transcend  experience  of  the  ele- 
ments and  blankness  results.  As  the  congenitally  bHnd  can- 
not image  a  color,  nor  the  congenitally  deaf  music,  a  normal 
pupil  cannot  image  a  machine  unless  he  has  actually  seen  it. 
Object-lessons  are  as  much  a  part  of  reading  lessons  as  of 
chemistry.  Whenever  fundamentals  are  lacking  through  ex- 
perience they  should,  if  possible,  be  suppHed  by  objective  illus- 
tration or  pictorial  representation. 

A  caution  needs  to  be  offered  against  too  prolonged  continu- 
ation of  the  objects.  Just  as  soon  as  sensory  experience  has 
been  made  clear,  the  object  is  no  longer  needed.  In  fact,  its 
continuance  will  be  positively  harmful.  Sensory  experience  is 
the  lowest  form  of  knowledge,  and  is  only  the  raw  material 
for  a  finer  web  of  thought.  Dealing  with  sensory  experience 
when  the  child  should  be  reflecting  will  surely  produce  arrested 
development.     As  Doctor  Hinsdale  has  so  well  said: 

The  Realists  have  deservedly  emphasized  the  value  of  sense-percep- 
tion and  of  sense-teaching  in  education;  but  they  have  not  emphasized 
the  facts  that  the  particular  and  the  concrete  mark  an  early  and  im- 
perfect stage  of  mental  advancement,  and  that  there  is  no  greater  clog 
upon  mental  progress  than  the  habit  of  "thinging"  it,  and  that  a  man's 
thinking  capacity  is  gauged  by  his  power  to  think  general  and  abstract 
thoughts.  Children  and  savages — all  immature  minds — Uve  in  their 
senses ;  cultivated  men  grow  out  of  them.  .  .  .  The  savage  is  as  weak 
in  speculative  reflection  as  he  is  strong  in  keenness  of  scent.  .  .  . 

In  gaining  ideas  of  number,  the  child  must  derive  his  first 
notions  through  actual  experiences  with  concrete  things.     He 


FUNDAMENTAL   ACQUISITIONS  119 

must  learn  through  actual  experiences  the  relative  magnitude 
of  numbers,  the  magnitude  of  number  series,  and  in  the  same 
way  secure  a  correct  idea  of  the  process  involved  in  the  various 
computations.  In  teaching  arithmetic  it  is  so  easy  to  con- 
trive means  of  affording  sensory  experiences  and  of  making 
things  concrete.  All  measures  of  length,  area,  volume,  weight, 
and  capacity  can  be  readily  objectified.  Unless  gained  con- 
cretely, they  never  mean  anything.  Children  may  recite 
glibly  tables  of  denominate  numbers  and  not  have  a  single 
definite  notion  of  what  they  are  mouthing.  But  it  is  peda- 
gogically  unwise  to  have  the  pupil  learn  every  fact  and  every 
subject  objectively.  For  example,  3  +  2  or  3  X  2  may  be 
learned  objectively,  but  9  +  8  or  9X8  never  should  be. 
These  latter  should  be  taken  as  authoritative  statements,  un- 
questioningly.  Who  knows  from  objective  experience  that 
9  X  8  =  72  ?  Whoever  first  learned  it  that  way  is  to  be 
pitied.  The  child  knows  from  counting  that  eight  9's  are 
more  than  seven  9's,  and  also  knows  from  counting  the  rela- 
tive places  of  63  and  72,  so  that  when  9  X  8  =  72  is  told  him 
it  seems  reasonable.  If  the  table  were  built  up  rationally, 
step  by  step,  he  would  not  believe  that  9  X  8  =  14,  but  he 
could  easily  be  made  to  believe  that  it  equals  73.  Many 
things  that  we  never  demonstrate  nevertheless  fit  into  our 
rational  thinking,  so  as  to  do  no  violence  to  the  usual  currents 
of  thought. 

Doctor  Schaeffer  instances  a  school  in  which  the  principal 
proposed  concrete  work  in  fractions. 

The  teachers  and  pupils  began  to  divide  things  into  halves,  and 
thirds,  and  fourths,  and  sixths.  They  added  and  subtracted  by  sub- 
dividing these  into  fractions  that  denoted  equal  parts  of  a  unit.  Whilst 
the  charm  of  novelty  still  clung  to  the  process,  a  stranger  who  visited 
the  school  asked  one  of  the  teachers  how  the  pupils  and  parents  liked 
the  change.  "Everybody  is  delighted,"  was  the  exclamation.  A 
year  later  the  same  teacher  was  asked  by  the  visitor:  ''How  are  you 
succeeding  with  your  concrete  work  in  fractions?"  With  a  dejected 
air  she  replied:  "We  are  disappointed  with  the  results."  "Just  as  I 
expected,"  exclaimed  the  visitor,  "for  you  were  making  the  children 
think  <)n  the  level  of  barbarism,  instead  of  teaching  them  to  use  the 


I20    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

tools  of  labor-saving  machinery  of  modern  civilization."     {Thinking 
and  Learning  to  Think,  p.  91.) 

As  far  as  possible,  object-lessons  should  be  given  in  their 
natural  setting.  The  object-lesson,  apart  from  a  life  interest, 
does  not  compare  with  one  that  grows  out  of  a  consideration 
of  things  in  their  natural  surroundings,  and  studied  as  a  part 
of  everyday  life.  Dewey  may  be  quoted  apropos  of  this 
point  {The  School  and  Society,  p.  8): 

No  number  of  object-lessons,  got  up  as  object-lessons  for  the  sake 
of  giving  information,  can  afford  even  the  shadow  of  a  substitute  for 
acquaintance  with  the  plants  and  animals  of  the  farm  and  garden, 
acquired  through  actual  living  among  them  and  caring  for  them.  No 
training  of  sense-organs  in  school,  introduced  for  the  sake  of  training, 
can  begin  to  compete  with  the  alertness  and  fulness  of  sense-life  that 
comes  through  daily  intimacy  and  interest  in  familiar  occupations. 

The  material  sciences  are  not  the  only  ones  that  demand 
laboratory  methods.  The  schoolroom  with  apparatus  is  not 
the  only  real  laboratory.  The  schoolroom  laboratory,  in  fact, 
is  only  a  miniature,  controllable  representation  of  certain  fun- 
damental laws  or  facts  of  the  great  laboratories  of  nature  and 
of  life.  Teachers  of  science  should  vitalize  their  work  by  util- 
izing these  greater  laboratories,  by  affording  opportunities  to 
inspect  them,  and  by  continually  showing  the  applications  of 
all  laws  and  principles  in  everyday  life.  In  fact,  applications 
are  more  apt  to  interest  than  are  the  detached  illustrations. 

Field  Trips. — In  Europe  the  school  journey  is  a  unique  and 
valuable  means  of  making  instruction  real.  Not  only  are 
brief  excursions  made  frequently  into  the  immediate  locality, 
but  many  schools  make  periodical  journeys  lasting  from  three 
to  six  days.  In  the  former  the  pupils  become  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  the  points  of  geographic  and  historic  interest  and 
with  the  life  about  them.  This  gives  an  apperceiving  back- 
ground for  the  things  not  accessible.  How  many  of  us  have 
studied  the  botany  of  rare  plants  and  been  ignorant  of  dozens 
of  common  species  within  a  stone's  throw  of  our  door,  or  have 
studied   rare  rock  formations  from  a  book  when  an   hour's 


FUNDAMENTAL  ACQUISITIONS  I2r 

tramp  would  have  made  every  point  tangible !  The  longer 
journey  may  not  be  feasible  in  a  sparsely  settled  region,  but 
in  New  England  and  in  some  other  parts  of  the  United  States 
it  could  be  carried  out  to  good  advantage. 

Relation  of  Books  to  Sensory  Experiences. — One  of  the 
commonest  mistakes  is  to  make  teaching  simply  a  matter  of 
words.  From  the  very  fact  that  schools  have  properly  so 
much  to  do  with  books,  it  is  easy  to  regard  teaching  as  a  mere 
matter  of  memorizing  the  words  of  books.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  books  do  not  deal  directly  with  realities. 
They  only  contain  records  about  realities.  The  realities  must 
be  acquired  through  personal  examination  of  the  realities 
themselves.  Text-books  must  be  regarded  as  texts;  the 
sermons  must  come  from  outside  sources.  To  be  sure,  books 
should  serve  to  reveal  knowledge  which  one  might  not  get  so 
readily  or  not  at  all  by  studying  realities  alone ;  but  they  can 
only  do  this  when  they  constantly  appeal  to  experiences  re- 
alized. This  is  true  of  the  knowledge  of  a  dynamo,  a  potato, 
or  a  rock;  it  is  also  true  of  a  psychological  fact  or  a  philosoph- 
ical theory.  The  dynamo  is  only  known  when  it  has  been 
made  real  and  is  comprehended  through  experience;  likewise 
one  knows  nothing  of  a  psychological  law  until  he  has  realized 
it  through  his  own  personal  experience.  "Not  psychology 
but  to  psychologize"  should  be  the  end  sought  in  that  study. 

The  teacher  should  scrutinize  every  step  in  every  subject 
and  inquire:  "How  can  I  cause  the  boys  and  girls  really  to 
know  this  step?"  If  this  were  done  in  every  schoolroom  in 
the  land,  the  educational  millennium  would  soon  appear  on 
the  horizon.  Dewey  wrote:  "What  is  primarily  required  is 
first-hand  experience.  Until  recently  the  school  has  literally 
been  dressed  out  with  hand-me-down  garments,  with  intellec- 
tual suits  which  other  people  have  worn."  And  we  might  add 
that,  like  all  borrowed  garments,  they  are  usually  misfits. 

When  I  was  in  high  school  we  studied  physics  by  the  book 
method.  Not  a  single  piece  of  apparatus  did  the  school  pos- 
sess— much  less  a  laboratory.  Not  a  pupil  in  the  class  per- 
formed an  experiment,  nor  did  the  teacher.     The  nearest  ap- 


122    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

proach  to  the  study  of  realities  was  through  the  good  diagrams 
and  pictures  in  the  text  and  the  diagram  occasionally  drawn 
on  the  blackboard.  Astronomy,  zoology,  and  geology  were 
studied  in  the  same  school  and  by  the  same  barren  verbal 
method.  I  think  chemistry  was  also  studied.  Had  there 
been  real  chemicals  and  an  occasional  explosion  I  am  sure 
that  I  should  remember  the  fumes  and  the  explosions.  Later 
pursuit  of  this  subject  in  a  real  laboratory  left  me  a  very 
definite  remembrance  of  the  nature  of  chemistry.  In  the 
study  of  botany  we  fortunately  had  a  teacher  fresh  from  a 
university,  and  we  studied  real,  live,  growing  plants.  Un- 
fortunately the  main  end  seemed  to  be  names  and  classifica- 
tions, but  in  spite  of  that  we  handled  plants,  tramped  through 
swamps  and  over  hills,  tore  our  clothes  in  the  thickets  of  brush, 
and  discovered  where  the  plants  grew,  when  they  grew,  and 
how  they  grew.  These  impressions  will  always  remain.  Time 
and  distance  and  other  impressions  cannot  efface  them.  They 
were  my  own  personal  experiences,  my  own  ideas  and  not 
Gray's  nor  Apgar's  nor  my  teacher's.     They  are  mine  still. 

An  acquaintance  of  mine  relates  that  when  a  boy,  back  in 
Ohio,  one  day  when  they  were  studying  the  animals  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  an  itinerant  bear-trainer,  with  three  Rocky 
Mountain  bears,  passed  that  way  and  stopped  in  front  of  the 
old  log  schoolhouse.  Here  was  a  grand  chance  to  let  the 
children  see  the  real  thing.  What  did  that  teacher  do  ? 
True  to  her  training  and  ambition  as  a  strict  disciplinarian, 
and  true  to  her  ideal  that  book  learning  was  the  school,  she 
sternly  ordered  all  to  cease  looking  out  of  the  windows,  even 
rapped  some  on  the  head,  and  commanded:  "Study  your 
books!"  Recently  a  teacher  told  me  apologetically  that 
when  Barnum  and  Bailey's  circus  and  menagerie  was  in  the 
city  she  allowed  the  children  a  quarter-holiday,  and  added 
still  more  apologetically:  "I  really  think  they  learned  almost 
as  much  as  if  they  had  stayed  in  school."  My  answer  was: 
"Why,  bless  you,  they  learned  more  in  that  quarter-day 
about  animals  and  many  wonders  of  the  world  than  your 
school  could  have  given   them  in   ten  years !     In  fact,   the 


FUNDAMENTAL   ACQUISITIONS  123 

knowledge  they  gained  there  you  could  not  give  them  at  all. 
By  all  means  dismiss  school  every  time  a  great  circus  and 
hippodrome  is  within  reach  of  the  children.  The  menagerie 
will  furnish  your  boys  and  girls  geography,  natural  history, 
and  language  lessons,  such  as  no  school  on  earth  can  give." 

The  School  of  Life. — We  must  not  assume  that  the  child 
secures  all  his  education  within  the  four  walls  of  a  schoolroom 
and  from  his  text-books.  The  whole  of  life  is  education. 
The  school  should  be  the  best  interpreter  of  life  and  should 
furnish  more  tools  than  any  other  source  for  the  work  of  life, 
yet  many,  if  not  the  most  important,  educational  lessons  must 
come  from  outside  the  school.  The  extent  of  the  child's  extra- 
school  experience  determines  the  manner  in  which  he  shall 
appreciate  what  we  attempt  to  teach  him.  Years  before  the 
child  knocks  at  the  schoolhouse  door,  and  during  his  school 
age  for  many  more  days  and  hours  than  he  is  conning  his  les- 
sons, he  is  acquiring  by  nature's  method  more  and  better  than 
we  usually  teach  him.  In  "The  Barefoot  Boy,"  Whittier  has 
beautifully  expressed  a  profound  educational  idea  and  shown 
us  how  independence  of  thought  should  be  acquired,  and  that 
life  is  the  greatest  school.     He  praises  the  boy  for  his 

"Knowledge  never  learned  of  schools, 

Of  the  wild  bee's  morning  chase, 

Of  the  wild  flower's  time  and  place, 

Flight  of  fowl  and  habitude 

Of  the  tenants  of  the  wood; 

How  the  tortoise  bears  his  shell, 

How  the  woodchuck  digs  his  cell, 

And  the  ground- mole  sinks  his  well; 

How  the  robin  feeds  her  young, 

How  the  oriole's  nest  is  hung; 

Where  the  whitest  lilies  blow, 

Where  the  freshest  berries  grow, 

Where  the  ground-nut  trails  its  vine. 

Where  the  wood-grape's  clusters  shine; 
,  Of  the  black  wasp's  cunning  way, 

Mason  of  his  walls  of  clay, 

And  the  architectural  plans 

Of  gray  hornet  artisans  ! 


124        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

For,  eschewing  books  and  tasks, 
Nature  answers  all  he  asks; 
Hand  in  hand  with  her  he  walks, 
Face  to  face  with  her  he  talks." 

Halleck  remarks  that  **if  the  child's  knowledge  reaches  to 
a  solid  foundation  of  sense-training  like  this,  the  floods  of  time 
will  beat  in  vain  upon  that  knowledge.  Other  things  may 
pass  away,  but  that  remains  while  the  brain  lasts."  He 
argues  at  great  length  that  country  environment  has  proven 
most  conducive  to  the  development  of  great  intellects.  He 
cites  in  proof  of  his  contention  the  names  of  Shakespeare,  Mil- 
ton, Cromwell,  Addison,  Bunyan,  Dryden,  Johnson,  Byron, 
Longfellow;  and  many  others  who  were  illustrious  and  who 
were  profoundly  influenced  by  rural  environment.  {Educa- 
tion of  the  Central  Nervous  System^  p.  92.)  Country  environ- 
ment is  undoubtedly  conducive  to  the  child's  best  mental  de- 
velopment; first,  because  it  furnishes  stimuli  which  are  simple 
and  comprehensible  at  that  stage  of  development;  second,  be- 
cause there  is  also  greater  opportunity  for  freedom,  thus  allow- 
ing the  child  to  follow  lines  of  interest;  and,  third,  because  his 
growth  is  not  forced.  The  city  is  too  complex,  too  intricate, 
and  too  much  like  a  hothouse. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  How  did  you  get  your  ideas  of  the  following  terms:  hard,  sour,  hydro- 
gen sulphide,  livid,  lurid,  translucent,  sundae,  pellucid?  2.  Are  the  blind 
good  spellers  on  the  typewriter?  3.  What  senses  are  most  directly  used 
in  learning  to  drive  an  automobile?  4,  If  children  become  expert  in  per- 
ceiving colors,  are  they  therefore  keener  in  perceiving  tones?  5,  What 
senses  are  of  dominant  use  in  learning  music?  spelling?  6.  Should  oral 
spelling  be  encouraged?  7.  Should  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell  be 
trained?  8.  What  relation  is  there  between  sensory  experiences  and  alge- 
bra? philosophy? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XVII. 

2.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  V,  VI. 

3.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  V. 

4.  Dewey,  The  School  and  Society,  chap.  II. 

5.  Hall,  Aspects  of  Child  Life  and  Education,  pp.  1-52. 

6.  James,  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals,  chaps.  XIII, 

XIV. 


CHAPTER  IX 
LEARNING  AND  EXPRESSION  THROUGH  PLAY 

Play  Reveals  Child  Nature. — If  one  wishes  to  understand 
child  nature  there  is  no  other  means  so  illuminating  as  to 
watch  children  at  their  spontaneous  plays.  The  child  at  his 
school  tasks  is  apt  to  be  artificial  and  reserved.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  in  the  recitation,  where  he  knows  that  everything 
he  says  and  does  will  be  watched  and  probably  marked. 
Under  such  circumstances  he  refrains  from  expression  as 
much  as  possible.  But  at  play  he  is  himself,  and  his  inmost 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  attitudes  are  expressed  spontaneously 
and  unrestrained. 

Every  teacher  should  be  obliged  to  spend  some  time  on  the 
playground  with  the  children,  first  because  of  the  splendid 
opportunity  for  knowing  children  as  they  are;  second,  because 
of  the  unexampled  chance  to  influence  them;  and  third,  be- 
cause of  the  reflex  effect  upon  the  teacher.  Participation  in 
the  children's  plays  will  be  as  a  fountain  of  youth,  will  cheer 
and  sweeten  the  life  of  the  teacher,  help  him  to  love  children 
and  to  delight  in  being  their  companion  and  guide.  The 
teacher  who  actually  participates  in  the  children's  plays  gains 
a  hold  upon  them  that  is  not  enjoyed  by  the  mere  taskmaster. 
The  teacher  in  the  high  school  who  wields  the  greatest  influ- 
ence of  any  in  the  entire  school  system  is  the  athletic  coach. 
His  influence  is  for  weal  or  woe,  according  to  his  innermost 
character. 

In  colonial  times  and  much  later,  play  was  considered  by 
many  as  sinful,  and  it  was  the  business  of  teachers  to  keep 
the  children  from  playing.  My  own  early  teachers  apparently 
believed  it  implicitly  and  obeyed  it  faithfully.  Happily,  now, 
our  whole  interpretation  of  play  life  has  changed.  We  know 
that  play  is  the  most  spontaneous  and  natural  expression  of 

125 


126    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

child  life.  Not  only  is  play  now  allowed,  it  is  encouraged; 
children  are  furnished  playgrounds  and  gymnasiums,  have 
time  set  apart  in  the  school  programme  for  play,  and  are  even 
taught  how  to  play. 

Plato  said:  "The  plays  of  children  have  the  mightiest  influ- 
ence on  the  maintenance  of  laws — from  the  first  years  of  child- 
hood their  plays  ought  to  be  subject  to  laws,  for  if  they  are 
arbitrary  and  lawless,  how  can  children  ever  become  virtuous 
men,  abiding  by  law?"  Aristotle  advised  that  children  be- 
fore five  years  of  age  "should  be  taught  nothing  lest  it  hinder 
growth,  but  should  be  accustomed  to  use  much  motion — and 
this  can  be  acquired  by  various  means,  among  others  by  play, 
which  ought  to  be  neither  too  illiberal,  nor  too  laborious,  nor 
lazy."  Luther  tells  us  that  "Solomon  did  not  prohibit  schol- 
ars from  play  at  the  proper  time.  A  young  man  shut  up 
(without  recreation)  is  like  a  young  tree  which  ought  to  bear 
fruit  but  is  planted  in  a  pot." 

Locke  asserts  that  "the  gamesome  humor  of  childhood, 
which  is  wisely  adapted  by  nature  to  its  age  and  temper, 
should  be  encouraged,  to  keep  up  their  spirits  and  improve 
their  health  and  strength.  The  chief  art  is  to  make  all  that 
children  have  to  do,  sport  and  play."  He  invented  games  for 
teaching  reading,  and  suggested  others.  Richter  in  the 
Levana  says  that  "activity  alone  can  bring  and  hold  serenity 
and  happiness.  Unlike  our  games,  the  plays  of  children  are 
the  expressions  of  serious  activity,  although  in  light,  airy 
dress.  Play  is  the  first  poetical  (creative)  utterance  of  man." 
Schiller  says:  "Man  is  man  only  when  he  plays." 

Finally  Froebel,  in  the  Education  of  Man^  says: 

Play  is  the  highest  phase  of  the  child  development — for  it  is  self- 
attentive  representation  of  the  inner  life  from  inner  necessity  and 
impulse.  Play  is  the  purest,  most  spiritual  activity  of  man,  at  this 
stage,  and  at  the  same  time  typical  of  human  Hfe  as  a  whole — of  the 
inner,  hidden,  natural  life  in  man  and  all  things.  It  gives  joy,  free- 
dom, contentment,  inner  and  outer  rest,  peace  with  the  world.  It 
holds  the  sources  of  all  that  is  good.  A  child  that  plays  thoroughly, 
with  self-active  determination,  will  surely  be  a  thorough,  determined 
man,  capable  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  promotion  of  the  welfare  of  him- 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   PLAY       127 

self  and  others.  The  spontaneous  play  of  the  child  discloses  the  future 
inner  life  of  the  man.  If  the  child  is  injured  at  this  period,  if  the 
germinal  leaves  of  the  future  tree  of  his  life  are  marred  at  this  time, 
he  will  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  and  the  utmost  effort  grow  into 
strong  manhood.  (Quoted  from  Tanner,  The  Child:  His  Thinking, 
Feeling  and  Doing,  p.  393.) 

What  Is  Play  ? — It  is  not  easy  to  define  play  nor  to  dis- 
tinguish absolutely  between  play  and  work.  However,  in 
play  there  must  be  spontaneous  expression  prompted  by  a 
feeling  of  vigor.  Through  play  there  must  result  a  feeling  of 
satisfaction  through  the  activity  itself.  In  play  there  must 
be  a  sense  of  relaxation.  The  significant  factor  in  play  is 
the  mental  attitude,  and  not  the  physical  activity  connected 
with  it. 

We  are  apt  to  think  immediately  of  physical  activity,  a 
gymnasium  or  a  playground  and  a  game.  While  all  these 
may  be  connected  with  play,  yet  play  has  a  much  broader 
significance.  While  physical  culture  and  physical  health  are 
desirable  outcomes  of  play,  yet  they  are  not  the  essential 
features  of  it.  Since  exhilaration  and  spontaneity  are  the 
chief  characteristics  of  play,  it  is  possible  that  a  game  involv- 
ing a  severe  physical  contest  may  be  the  hardest  kind  of 
drudgery  and  be  devoid  of  the  play  attitude.  Games  re- 
quiring physical  endurance  and  skill  are  to  be  encouraged, 
but  their  purpose  is  the  development  of  strength,  skill,  endur- 
ance, or  poise,  and  they  do  not  fill  the  demand  for  play.  The 
hard-worked  and  oftentimes  overtaxed  athlete  must  find  his 
play  in  other  forms  of  activity,  which  will  afford  spontaneous 
recreation. 

The  great  majority  of  play  directors  think  of  play  only  in 
connection  with  games  and  physical  contests.  In  their  direc- 
tion of  play  fields  they  think  only  of  the  organized  games. 
It  is,  of  course,  desirable  that  organized  games  should  be  pro- 
moted, but  much  of  the  best  play  is  unorganized  and  hap- 
hazard. The  children  who  throw  a  ball,  then  try  the  giant 
stride,  as  quickly  turn  to  climb  a  ladder,  or  change  to  chase  a 
butterfly,  are  really  playing,  and  the  ones  in  the  prescribed 


128    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

games  may  be  working.  The  player  must  be  free  to  cease 
playing  or  change  the  type  the  moment  his  interest  flags. 
The  organized  games  are  valuable  and  may  be  play,  but  are 
not  necessarily  such. 

Judged  by  the  foregoing  criteria,  it  will  be  seen  readily  that 
real  play  must  spring  from  inner  impulses  rather  than  to  be 
required  from  without.  Oftentimes  the  game  ceases  to  be 
play  because  of  external  requirements  and  because  it  is  car- 
ried beyond  the  point  of  relaxation  and  rejuvenation.  It  is 
well  to  have  play  guided,  but  not  prescribed. 

Play  Is  Instinctive. — All  normal  children  play.  The  child 
that  does  not  play  is  undoubtedly  mentally  abnormal  or  ill. 
Not  only  do  children  play  but  adults  do  also,  if  they  have  lived 
naturally  through  the  period  of  childhood.  A  great  many 
animals,  especially  the  young,  engage  in  play.  Play  seems  to 
be  a  natural  means  of  relaxation.  To  assume  that  play  is  in- 
stinctive does  not  mean  that  the  particular  form  of  play  is 
instinctive,  although  in  some  cases  it  may  be.  It  has  been 
shown  by  some  writers  that  the  great  majority  of  plays  and 
games  are  an  outgrowth  of  and  a  modification  of  running, 
throwing,  hiding,  caring  for  children  (as  in  doll  plays). 

Patrick  says  the  child  "plays  because  he  is  a  child,  and  to 
the  child's  natural  and  active  life  we  give  the  name  'play'  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  life  of  conscious  self -direction,  of  strain 
and  effort  and  inhibition  which  evolution  has  imposed  upon 
the  adult  human  being."  (Patrick,  G.  T.  W.,  Psychology  of 
Relaxation,  p.  79.)  Play  in  the  case  of  adults,  the  same 
writer  holds,  is  a  turning  away,  a  relaxation  from  the  serious 
work  of  life,  which  means  tension,  strain,  and  inhibitions. 
The  forms  of  play  of  the  adult  follow  in  large  part  the  same 
essential  directions  as  those  of  children.  The  main  differ- 
ences are  in  the  numbers  of  rules  and  complexities. 

Play  Is  Mental  Relaxation. — With  the  foregoing  idea  of  play 
in  mind  it  will  be  readily  seen  that  there  are  many  forms  of 
play.  Games  of  checkers,  chess,  or  cards,  when  engaged  in 
for  pastime  and  recreation  and  not  as  a  serious  business,  are 
a  means  of  play.     Billiards  and  pool  are  in  the  same  category. 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   PLAY       129 

Then  there  are  theatres,  concerts,  and  movies  that  are  to  be 
included  in  play.  In  these  the  real  players  are  not  the  actors 
on  the  stage,  but  rather  the  ones  who  go  to  be  entertained. 
They  go  as  a  matter  of  enjoyment,  do  little  or  no  serious 
thinking  while  there,  forget  the  cares  and  routine  of  the  day, 
and  come  away  refreshed.  At  the  football  contest  or  at  the 
great  American  League  games  the  real  players  are  not  the 
contestants  on  the  gridiron  or  the  baseball  diamond — they  are 
working  furiously — but  rather  the  ones  who  sit  on  the  bleach- 
ers and  yell  themselves  hoarse.  They  are  there  to  get  away 
from  routine,  to  watch  others  struggle,  to  give  way  to  their 
moods  and  emotions,  to  secure  relaxation.  In  the  same  atti- 
tude we  go  to  the  circus.  Those  with  the  organization  go 
through  their  acrobatics  and  various  stunts,  not  as  relaxation, 
but  as  a  matter  of  earning  their  daily  bread.  We  onlookers 
give  ourselves  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  day  and  the  change, 
the  excitement,  and  the  keen  pleasure  that  acts  as  an  electric 
charge  from  a  battery,  giving  us  rejuvenation  and  tonicity. 
That  is  characteristic  of  all  real  play.  Its  value  is  peculiarly 
enhanced  if  the  play  is  mirthful,  causing  us  to  laugh.  Every 
one  knows  the  tonic  effect  of  the  hearty  laugh.  "Laugh  and 
grow  fat"  is  a  world-old  dictum. 

The  play  aspect  of  reading  has  not  been  recognized  suffi- 
ciently. Very  few  writers  have  mentioned  it.  However,  it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  play  activities  of  millions  of  people, 
adults  as  well  as  children.  Reading  frequently  for  the  pure 
fun  of  it  should  be  encouraged  heartily.  Serious  reading 
should  have  its  place  also.  But  people  need  to  learn  to  find 
the  keenest  pleasure  in  reading.  They  need  to  have  the  op- 
portunity, and  to  acquire  the  habit  of  reading  just  for  the 
enjoyment  that  is  to  be  got  out  of  it.  For  the  moment,  they 
allow  some  one  else  to  do  the  thinking,  and  give  themselves 
up  to  the  flights  of  fancy,  to  day-dreams,  and  to  ideals  which 
attract,  possibly  amuse;  at  any  rate,  so  compel  attention  that 
they  draw  us  entirely  away  from  serious  work  and  routine, 
and  possible  drudgery.  Such  attitudes,  occasionally  inter- 
spersed in  the  midst  of  work,  are  absolutely  essential  to  a  well- 


I30 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


balanced  education.  They  produce  a  reflex  effect  upon  all 
the  rest  of  life,  promoting  normal  healthy  development,  sanity, 
and  poise  of  mind.  The  insane  are  generally  persons  who 
have  drifted  entirely  away  from  a  normal  play-life.  Many 
insane  never  had  a  play  period  in  childhood  and  never  learned 
to  play. 

The  Varied  Values  of  Play. — The  values  of  play  are  as 
varied  as  the  values  of  life.  The  physical,  mental,  social, 
moral,  and  religious  natures  all  owe  their  debt  to  play.  It  is 
difficult  to  overestimate  this  debt.  Play  is  the  school  of  in- 
fancy and  childhood,  without  whose  tutelage  formal  educa- 
tion could  accomplish  little.  Preyer,  from  his  intensive  study 
of  infancy,  was  convinced  that  a  child  learns  as  much  in  his 
first  three  or  four  years  as  in  his  whole  university  course. 
The  time  has  passed  when  with  our  Puritan  fathers  we  can 
look  upon  play  as  a  waste  of  time.  Rather  it  is  the  child 
who  does  not  play  whose  time  is  wasted.  Many  books  and 
special  articles  have  recently  been  written  to  demonstrate 
the  values  of  play.  We  can  here  barely  indicate  these 
values. 

The  recuperative,  diversional,  and  relaxational  values  of 
play  have  already  been  suggested.  U  there  were  no  other 
values  than  these,  play  would  deserve  a  large  place  in  the  life 
of  youth  and  of  adults,  and  would  find  ample  justification  in 
the  scheme  of  life.  The  greater  the  stress  and  strain  of  work, 
the  greater  the  need  of  the  relaxation  which  play  most  surely 
furtiishes.  Sorrow,  depression,  painful  associations,  and  dis- 
tressing circumstances  are  forgotten,  and  their  detrimental 
effects  are  at  least  diminished  by  play  as  by  nothing  else. 
The  fatigue  incident  to  the  deadening  routine  of  many  pres- 
ent-day occupations  finds  here  its  safest  antidote.  Active 
plays  and  games  increase  the  vasomotor  reactions,  stir  to 
action  the  healthful  emotions  which  always  accompany  spon- 
taneous activity,  rid  the  body  of  the  accumulated  toxins  gen- 
erated by  drudgery,  and  so  recuperate  and  revitalize  the  body 
and  mind.  Play  is  an  antidote  to  vice  as  well.  Many  a 
worker  at  narrow,  circumscribed,  and  distasteful  tasks  may 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION  THROUGH   PLAY       131 

be  saved  from  resort  to  alcohol,  narcotics,  drugs,  and  other 
harmful  stimulants  by  being  taught  to  find  relaxation,  diver- 
sion, and  stimulation  in  proper  physical  play. 

Plays  and  games  form  character  and  mould  the  soul  in 
varied  and  most  effective  ways.  There  is  scarcely  a  virtue 
that  is  not  born  and  reared  to  sturdy  strength  through  suit- 
able and  timely  play.  Self-control,  self-reliance,  self-subordi- 
nation, co-operation,  loyalty,  self-assertion,  self-direction,  ca- 
pacity to  lead  and  willingness  to  follow,  are  necessary  virtues 
learned  nowhere  so  readily  and  so  surely.  Justice,  honesty, 
respect  for  the  rights  of  others,  the  necessity  for  and  the  bind- 
ing nature  of  law,  and  all  those  principles,  recognition  of  which 
complex  social  and  industrial  life  demands,  come  as  by-prod- 
ucts of  rightly  conducted  play.  Dramatization  and  imitation 
of  adult  activities  give  the  best  insight  into  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  citizenship  and  train  them  far  better  than 
mere  instruction.  Hall's  Story  of  a  Sand  Pile  is  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  varied  and  specific  ways  in  which  play  under 
favorable  conditions  may  prepare  for  citizenship  by  giving 
suitable  practice  to  its  essential  activities. 

Play  in  Physical  Education. — There  are  two  main  reasons 
why  play  should  be  encouraged  as  a  means  of  physical  educa- 
tion. In  the  first  place,  since  real  play  is  so  interesting,  it  is 
easy  to  secure  physical  exercise  without  compulsion.  To  go 
through  physical  exercise  just  as  prescribed  activity  soon  be- 
comes monotonous,  and  few  voluntarily  keep  up  such  exercise 
for  any  length  of  time.  To  walk,  to  run,  to  row,  or  to  lift 
dumb-bells  just  as  a  periodic  means  of  exercise  requires  more 
than  the  ordinary  amount  of  will-power  even  on  the  part  of 
adults.  But  if  there  is  something  of  interest  to  be  seen  when 
walking  or  rowing,  if  one  has  interesting  companions,  if  one 
goes  through  an  interesting  competition  with  the  dumb-bells — 
in  short,  if  the  end  is  interesting  in  itself,  the  means  will  be 
followed.  This  games  and  sports  may  easily  and  naturally 
provide.  Therefore,  there  is  no  more  simple  and  efficient 
means  of  securing  needful  physical  exercise  than  through 
games  and  sports.     Accomplishment  of  an  end  always  has 


132    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

been  and  always  should  be  the  motive  for  action;  exercise, 
physical  and  mental,  should  be  Incidental  outcomes. 

A  second  valid  reason  why  play  Is  necessary  to  encourage 
physical  exercise  Is  that  the  old  forms  of  physical  exercise 
through  work  are  largely  Impossible  now.  Curtis  says  {Edu- 
cation through  Play,  p.  21): 

When  I  was  a  boy,  I  got  most  of  my  physical  strength  that  I  have 
to-day  on  the  wood-pile.  But  we  have  no  wood-pile  in  the  modern 
city.  In  preceding  ages  children,  before  their  growth  was  completed, 
have  always  helped  in  many  of  the  activities  of  their  parents.  To-day 
the  factory  system  and  our  doctrine  and  laws  concerning  child  labor 
prohibit  the  work  of  children.  But  even  so  far  as  they  participate  in 
the  occupations  that  are  available  and  in  child  labor,  so  called,  these 
do  not  mean  physical  development.  A  boy  will  never  become  an 
athlete  from  standing  at  a  loom  in  a  cotton  factory  or  from  shucking 
oysters,  or  delivering  packages,  or  tying  bundles,  or  picking  berries. 
On  the  farm,  too,  there  has  come  an  almost  complete  change.  The 
wheat  is  cut  and  bound  with  the  binder;  the  hay  is  cut  with  the  mower, 
raked  and  loaded  with  the  loader,  and  unloaded  with  the  hay-fork. 
Nearly  all  the  work  is  done  by  horses  and  a  machine  which  the  boy 
rides.  There  has  not  been  so  great  a  change  in  the  work  of  the  home, 
but  a  girl  cannot  develop  a  perfect  physique  through  washing  dishes, 
making  beds,  and  sweeping.  These  activities  are  about  the  worst 
exercise  that  there  is  in  the  whole  calendar,  are  indoors,  and  tend  to 
fill  the  lungs  with  dust.  Schmidt  says  that  the  death-rate  from  tuber- 
culosis is  25  per  cent  higher  among  girls  in  the  pubhc  schools  of  Ger- 
many than  it  is  among  the  boys.  This  is  just  what  we  should  expect. 
The  work  of  the  girls  in  the  home,  while  it  is  less  in  amount,  is  of 
much  the  same  kind  as  it  always  was,  but  the  girls  for  the  last  fifty 
years  have  been  getting  less  and  less  of  outdoor  exercise,  and  it  is  this 
that  has  always  been  the  main  source  of  their  strength. 

While  there  is  little  physical  development  to  be  found  in  the  tasks 
that  are  available  for  city  children,  up  to  about  14,  almost  none  of 
them  are  doing  anything.  Go  where  you  will  about  our  cities  and 
you  will  find  that,  outside  of  a  few  boys  who  are  carrying  papers  or 
shining  shoes,  the  boys  are  loafing,  not  working. 

The  only  means  there  is  left  whereby  a  child  may  become  strong  is 
through  his  play.  But  if  he  is  to  get  his  physical  development  in  this 
way,  he  must  have  vigorous  play;  he  cannot  do  it  at  ping-pong  and 
marbles.  The  children  who  are  playing  tag  and  similar  games  on  the 
street,  and  roller-skating,  will  develop  their  legs,  and  through  them 
their  hearts  and  lungs  to  a  considerable  extent,  but  there  is  Httle  in 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   PLAY       133 

street  play,  except  fighting,  to  develop  the  muscles  of  the  arms  and 
shoulders,  and  back  and  chest. 


Social  Value  of  Play. — Since  character  Is  mainly  determined 
by  actions  which  are  a  result  of  free  choice  on  the  part  of  an 
individual,  play  is  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  fashion- 
ing character.  If  play  is  supervised  so  as  to  suggest  and 
stimulate  organization,  it  furnishes  a  splendid  natural  oppor- 
tunity for  social  development.  If  overdirected  and  pre- 
scribed, the  opportunity  is  largely  lost.  Merely  being  in 
groups  and  following  regulations  is  not  necessarily  social.  It 
is  group  activity,  but  does  not  represent  group  initiative  and 
planning.  For  an  action  to  be  truly  social,  it  must  be  initiated 
by  the  group,  must  represent  group  decision  and  group  per- 
sistence. The  organization  must  be  representative  of  the 
group  and  for  the  group  and  be  executed  by  the  will  of  the 
group.  Too  often  play  directors  take  away  all  these  oppor- 
tunities and  possibilities  by  ready-made  overorganization  and 
prescription.  As  far  as  possible,  children  themselves  should 
develop  the  rules  of  the  games. 

Of  course  it  may  require  considerable  stimulation  and  gui- 
dance to  get  the  pupils  to  organize  games  among  themselves. 
The  younger  children  will  constantly  transgress  the  rules,  if  at 
all  complex.  Even  boys  of  a  dozen  years  of  age  do  not  hang 
together  in  organized  groups  for  any  length  of  time.  They 
often  organize  a  baseball  team  early  in  the  season,  but  they 
do  not  hang  together  through  the  season.  This  is  suggestive 
that  we  should  not  expect  too  much  in  the  way  of  organization 
among  children,  nor  should  we  prescribe  organization  that  is 
too  complex  or  that  requires  long  continuation  of  the  same 
game. 

Organizations  initiated  and  developed  by  the  older  pupils 
themselves  in  promoting  their  various  sports  are  a  very  ex- 
cellent means  of  developing  real  social  responsibility.  While 
there  should  be  oversight  and  general  supervision  by  teachers 
of  athletics  and  other  sports,  the  high-school  pupils  them- 
selves should  be  mainly  responsible  for  the  clean  organization 


134    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

and  conduct  of  all  such  activities.  Whenever  they  do  not 
live  up  to  their  responsibilities,  the  privilege  should  be  with- 
drawn.    Knowing  this,  they  will  usually  respond  manfully. 

In-  this  chapter  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  indicate  any  spe- 
cific plays  that  are  suitable  for  the  various  stages  of  develop- 
ment. In  this  discussion  only  the  psychology  of  play  and  the 
fundamental  educational  principles  growing  out  of  it  have 
been  considered.  There  are  many  excellent  books  and  man- 
uals on  play  which  teachers  and  directors  can  follow. 

Opportunity  for  Play. — The  educational  value  of  play  is  just 
beginning  to  be  realized.  It  already  has  a  large  place  in  the 
school  activities  from  the  kindergarten  through  the  univer- 
sity. Unfortunately  there  are  two  serious  defects  in  its  use. 
First  there  is  not  opportunity  to  play  provided  for  all;  second, 
where  play  is  secured  it  becomes  overorganized  and  often  too 
strenuous.  Play  is  quite  generally  a  part  of  the  kindergarten 
programme,  but  it  is  too  frequently  so  highly  organized  as  to 
lose  much  of  the  values  that  come  from  more  simple  and  spon- 
taneous play.  In  the  elementary  and  intermediate  school 
play  facilities  are  almost  wholly  lacking  in  most  schools. 
There  the  pupils  are  at  the  age  when  they  need  play  most. 
In  the  grammar-schools,  where  play  is  encouraged,  it  is  apt 
to  be  for  the  boys  mainly,  and  for  them  it  is  apt  to  be  pat- 
terned after  the  strenuous  games  and  contests  of  the  high 
school. 

Many  authorities  seem  to  think  that  they  have  provided 
quite  adequately  for  play  in  the  high  school.  They  consider 
that  the  gymnasiums  for  formal  corrective  exercises  and  the 
permission  to  develop  a  football  team  accomplishes  this  end 
completely.  Much  of  the  gymnasium  exercise  is  not  at  all 
in  the  nature  of  genuine  play.  Its  purpose  is  to  produce  co- 
ordination and  control.  The  exercises  are  systematically  ar- 
ranged and  look  toward  a  definite  end.  The  exercises  usually 
demand  as  specific,  continuous,  and  sustained  attention  as 
other  work  in  mathematics,  language,  or  science.  Ask  the 
pupils  if  their  gymnasium  exercises  are  play  or  work,  and  they 
almost  universally  answer  * '  work  ! "     They  were  originally  de- 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   PLAY       135 

signed  to  take  the  place  of  work  which  the  farmer's  boys  and 
girls  secured  through  their  regular  duties,  but  which  city  life 
made  impossible.  Now  the  farmer  boy  who  works  hard  and 
gets  plenty  of  exercise  needs  play  as  well  as  the  city  boy,  who 
does  not  have  the  advantage  of  real  physical  work. 

In  the  high  schools  and  colleges,  while  games  are  numerous, 
the  very  individuals  who  need  the  exercise  do  not  secure  it. 
Only  those  who  have  the  physique  to  be  probable  winners  in 
the  games  are  given  even  an  opportunity  to  participate.  Al- 
most no  provision  has  been  made  for  plays  and  games  for  all. 
That  should  be  one  of  the  next  steps  in  the  new  education. 

It  is  very  important  for  the  public  to  provide  opportunities 
for  recreation  for  all  the  people.  This  is  especially  necessary 
since  life  has  become  so  tense  in  carrying  on  business  and  in 
the  face  of  such  complex  social,  industrial,  and  political  con- 
ditions. Municipalities  are  very  properly  establishing  and 
maintaining  parks,  pubHc  play-fields,  and  various  kinds  of 
amusement  facilities.  If  people  are  to  retain  their  poise,  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  they  have  adequate  opportunity 
for  relaxation  from  the  routine  of  everyday  business  cares 
and  worries. 

The  construction  and  proper  maintenance  of  modern  auto- 
mobile roadways  leading  to  all  the  farms  and  penetrating  the 
national  forests,  winding  up  the  mountain  canyons  and  skirt- 
ing the  lakes  and  ocean  shores  are  not  only  a  far-sighted  finan- 
cial investment  but  a  contribution  to  the  bettered  health, 
sanity,  and  education  of  our  people.  The  automobile,  usu- 
ally thought  of  as  a  luxury,  is  a  necessity  for  rich  and  poor 
alike.  It  has  broadened  the  mental  horizon,  quieted  the  fraz- 
zled nerves,  restored  good  humor,  and  educated  millions  of 
the  toiling  masses.  It  is  a  natural  play  promoter  as  well  as  a 
great  business  asset. 

All  our  schools  should  be  provided  with  adequate  play- 
ground space  so  that  all  pupils  would  have  opportunity  for 
outdoor  recreation.  In  addition  to  this,  there  should  be  a 
gymnasium  and  swimming-pool  in  connection  with  every 
school.     Of  course  isolated  one-room  rural  schools  could  not 


136    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

be  thus  equipped.  But  soon  the  one-room  country  school 
will  be  largely  displaced  by  the  consolidated  school  having 
several  rooms  and  modern  equipment  and  accessories. 

Playtime  should  be  as  carefully  set  apart  as  study,  recita- 
tion, and  laboratory  periods.  Some  teacher  in  the  corps 
should  have  charge  of  the  play  activities,  meeting  different 
groups  at  different  times.  In  this  way  the  play  space  will  be 
economized  and  opportunities  will  be  provided  for  all  children 
to  participate.  As  previously  suggested,  abundant  oppor- 
tunity must  be  provided  for  real  free  play.  Some  of  the  time 
may  be  devoted  to  games  and  definite  exercises,  but  these 
must  not  monopolize  all  the  time.  They  must  not  be  so 
strenuous  and  prolonged,  either,  that  they  frustrate  the  very 
end  for  which  they  are  maintained.  For  the  special  groups 
who  wish  to  be  expert  in  various  games,  special  opportunities 
should  be  provided.  But  remember  that  the  health  and  rec- 
reation of  all  rather  than  the  training  of  championship  teams 
should  be  the  constantly  observed  ideal. 

Work  Through  Play. — Two  illustrations  of  ways  of  combin- 
ing play  with  regular  school  activities  are  given  here.  The 
first  is  an  excerpt  from  a  report  by  Doctor  Theodate  L.  Smith, 
then  of  Clark  University,  on  some  personal  observations  made 
while  visiting  Madame  Montessori  in  Rome.     She  wrote: 

If  one  visits  one  of  Doctor  Montessori's  schools  the  children  all 
seem  to  be  occupied  in  interesting  play.  Some  are  lying  on  the  floor 
playing  with  blocks  or  strips  of  wood  painted  in  different  colors. 
Some  are  playing  blindfold  games,  finding  out  by  the  aid  of  their  fin- 
gers alone  the  shapes  and  sizes  of  objects  and  different  textures  of  silk, 
satin,  wool,  or  linen.  One  child  was  absorbed  in  writing  on  the  black- 
board and  did  not  even  notice  my  entrance  into  the  room.  She  was 
writing  in  large  vertical  script  and  forming  the  letters  beautifully,  and 
in  answer  to  my  question  as  to  how  long  she  had  been  writing,  I 
learned  that  she  had  begun  the  day  before.  Occasionally  some  child 
,  .  .  received  either  approval  or  suggestion  that  perhaps  he  would  like 
to  do  something  else.  But  the  interest  and  attention  of  the  children  are 
never  interfered  with.  If  a  child  wishes  to  spend  the  entire  school 
period  of  two  hours  in  doing  one  thing,  he  is  allowed  to  do  so,  on  the 
principle  that  the  spontaneous  attention  is  a  fundamental  educative 
principle  that  must  not  be  interfered  with.     In  spite  of  the  fact  that 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION  THROUGH  PLAY       137 

this  particular  school  in  the  convent  on  the  Via  Guisti  draws  its  chil- 
dren from  an  exceedingly  poor  section  in  Rome,  their  appearance  was 
neat,  and  although  no  discipline  was  apparent,  the  schoolroom  was  in 
the  truest  sense  controlled  and  orderly. 

The  second  illustration  is  found  in  Doctor  Dewey's  Schools 
of  To-morrow,  p.  119: 

The  natural  desire  of  children  to  play  can,  of  course,  be  made  the 
most  of  in  the  lowest  grades,  but  there  is  one  element  of  the  play  in- 
stinct which  schools  are  utilizing  in  the  higher  grades — that  is,  the 
instinct  for  dramatization,  for  make-believe  in  action.  All  children 
love  to  pretend  that  they  are  some  body  or  thing  other  than  themselves; 
they  love  to  make  a  situation  real  by  going  through  the  motions  it 
suggests.  Abstract  ideas  are  hard  to  understand;  the  child  is  never 
quite  sure  whether  he  really  understands  or  not.  Allow  him  to  act 
out  the  idea  and  it  becomes  real  to  him,  or  the  lack  of  understanding 
is  shown  in  what  is  done.  Action  is  the  test  of  comprehension.  This 
is  simply  another  way  of  sa3dng  that  learning  by  doing  is  a  better 
way  to  learn  than  by  listening — the  difference  of  dramatization  from 
the  work  already  described  lies  in  the  things  the  child  is  learning.  He 
is  no  longer  dealing  with  material  where  things  are  needed  to  carry 
out  an  act  to  a  successful  result,  but  with  ideas  which  need  action  to 
make  them  real.  Schools  are  making  use  of  dramatization  in  all  sorts 
of  different  ways  to  make  teaching  more  concrete.  For  older  children 
dramatization  is  used  principally  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word;  that  is, 
by  having  pupils  act  in  plays,  either  as  a  means  of  making  the  English 
or  history  more  real,  or  simply  for  the  emotional  and  imaginative 
value  of  the  work.  With  the  little  children  it  is  used  as  an  aid  in  the 
teaching  of  history,  English,  reading,  or  arithmetic,  and  is  often  com- 
bined with  other  forms  of  activity. 

Many  schools  use  dramatization  as  a  help  in  teaching  the  first  steps 
of  any  subject,  especially  in  the  lower  grades.  A  first-year  class,  for 
example,  act  the  subject-matter  of  their  regular  reading-lesson,  each 
child  having  the  part  of  one  of  the  characters  of  the  story,  animal  or 
person.  This  insures  an  idea  of  the  situation  as  a  whole,  so  that  read- 
ing ceases  to  be  simply  an  attempt  to  recognize  and  pronounce  isolated 
words  and  phrases.  Moreover,  the  interest  of  the  situation  carries 
children  along,  and  enUsts  attention  to  difficulties  of  phraseology 
which  might,  if  attacked  as  separate  things,  be  discouraging.  The 
dramatic  factor  is  a  great  assistance  in  the  expressive  side  of  reading. 
Teachers  are  always  having  to  urge  children  to  read  ''naturally,"  to 
"read  as  they  talk."  But  when  a  child  has  no  motive  for  communi- 
cation of  what  he  sees  in  the  text,  knowing  as  he  does  that  the  teacher 


138         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

has  the  book  and  can  tell  it  better  than  he  can,  even  the  naturalness 
tends  to  be  forced  and  artificial.  Every  observer  knows  how  often 
children  who  depart  from  humdrum  droning  learn  to  exhibit  only  a 
superficial,  breathless  sort  of  liveUness  and  a  make-believe  animation. 
Dramatization  secures  both  attention  to  the  thought  of  the  text  and 
a  spontaneous  endeavor,  free  from  pretense  and  self-consciousness,  to 
speak  loudly  enough  to  be  heard  and  to  enunciate  distinctly.  In  the 
same  way,  children  tell  stories  much  more  effectively  when  they  are 
led  to  visualize  for  themselves  the  actions  going  on,  than  when  they 
are  simply  repeating  something  as  a  part  of  the  school  routine.  When 
children  are  drawing  scenes  involving  action  and  posture,  it  is  found 
that  prior  action  is  a  great  assistance.  In  the  case  of  a  pose  of  the  body, 
the  child  who  has  done  the  posing  is  often  found  to  draw  better  than 
those  who  have  merely  looked  on.  He  has  got  the  ''feel"  of  the  situ- 
ation, which  readily  influences  his  hand  and  eye  in  the  subsequent 
reproduction.  In  the  early  grades  when  pupils  fail  in  a  concrete  prob- 
lem in  arithmetic,  it  is  frequently  found  that  resort  to  "acting  out" 
the  situation  supplies  all  the  assistance  needed.  The  real  difficulty 
was  not  with  the  numbers  but  in  failure  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the 
situation  in  which  the  numbers  were  to  be  used. 

In  the  upper  grades  literature  and  history,  as  already  indicated,  are 
often  reinforced  by  dramatic  activities.  A  sixth  grade  in  Indianapolis 
engaged  in  dramatizing  Sleeping  Beauty  not  merely  composed  the  words 
and  the  stage  directions  but  also  wrote  the  songs  and  the  music  for 
them.  Such  concentration  on  a  single  purpose  of  studies  usually  pur- 
sued independently  stimulates  work  in  each.  Literary  expression  is 
less  monotonous,  the  phrasing  of  an  idea  more  delicate  and  flexible, 
than  when  composition  is  an  end  in  itself;  and  while  of  course  the  music 
is  not  likely  to  be  remarkable,  it  almost  always  has  a  freshness  and 
charm  exceeding  that  which  could  be  attained  from  the  same  pupils  if 
they  were  merely  writing  music. 

Meriam  argues  that  play  in  school  should  not  have  for  Its 
purpose  the  making  arithmetic  and  other  studies  more  at- 
tractive.    He  says  {Child  Life  and  the  Curriculum,  p.  315): 

Play  thus  used  as  a  means  of  instruction  is  a  serious  reflection  upon 
the  subject-matter  taught  or  the  teacher  teaching.  Something  is  wrong 
when  so  much  ingenuity  is  required  in  adapting  games  as  a  means  of 
securing  ends  in  certain  traditional  subject-matter.  .  ,  .  The  mere 
fact  that  play  is  recognized  as  one  phase  of  the  normal  life  of  children 
justifies  its  place  in  the  curriculum.  .  .  .  Real  life,  as  an  end,  is  of 
more  value  than  school  studies  as  a  means.  Thus  the  place  which 
play  has  in  the  lives  of  children  is  its  justification  for  recognition  in 


LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   PLAY       139 

school,  where  the  purpose  is  to  help  hoys  and  girls  do  better  in  all  those 
wholesome  activities  in  which  they  normally  engage. 


SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Do  animals  play?  2.  Is  there  any  relation  between  the  intelligence 
of  animals  and  their  ability  to  play?  3.  Do  children  play  when  ill?  4. 
List  the  various  types  of  play  activities  of  the  children  in  your  community. 
5.  Of  the  grown-ups.  6,  Do  teachers  play  sufficiently  ?  7.  Are  there  ade- 
quate play  facilities,  including  {a)  space,  {h)  equipment,  (c)  time  on  the 
programme,  in  your  public  schools?  8.  Should  play  centres  in  the  cities 
be  under  the  management  of  (a)  the  park  commissioners  or  (6)  the  school 
board?  9.  What  are  the  following  theories  of  play:  Spencer,  Groos,  Hall? 
10.  Do  boys  on  the  farm  need  play? 


References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Curtis,  Education  Through  Play,  chaps.  I,  II,  III,  IV. 

2.  Curtis,  The  Play  Movement  and  Its  Significance. 

3.  Dewey,  Schools  of  To-morrow,  chap.  V. 

4.  Johnson,  Education  by  Plays  and  Games.     Entire  book. 

5.  Lee,  Play  in  Education. 

6.  Meriam,  Child  Life  and  the  Curriculum,  chap.  XIV. 

7.  Norsworthy  and  Whitley,  Psychology  of  Childhood,  chap.  XII. 

8.  Patrick,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  chap.  II. 

9.  Waddle,  Introduction  to  Child  Psychology,  chap.  VI. 


CHAPTER  X 
EDUCATION  OF  THE  EMOTIONS 

Importance  in  Education. — On  graduation  from  school  it  is 
not  merely  what  a  boy  knows  that  determines  the  value  of 
his  education.  What  he  likes  and  dislikes ;  his  attitude  toward 
society  and  its  problems;  his  attitude  toward  religion  and 
morals;  his  attitude  toward  right  and  wrong;  his  attitude 
toward  his  duties  and  obligations;  these  are  vastly  more  im- 
portant than  the  few  items  of  knowledge  that  he  has  gained. 
While  in  school  the  enthusiasm  of  the  pupil  for  his  work  is 
exceedingly  important.  With  enthusiasm  he  can  generally 
accomplish  his  tasks  with  ease  and  efficiency;  without  it  they 
become  drudgery  and  in  the  end  are  only  half  performed. 

In  everyday  life  the  emotional  reaction  toward  life's  duties 
.•and  problems  is  the  all-important  thing.  One  man  with  facts 
;and  logic  may  give  absolute  proof  that  certain  things  ought 
to  be  done.  But  it  takes  the  evangelistic  type  to  fire  the 
people  with  zeal  to  take  hold  and  bring  things  to  pass.  Until 
the  emotions  of  people  are  aroused  they  will  allow  the  most 
important  things  to  remain  undone  and  will  tolerate  the 
gravest  injustices  in  society.  Some  teachers  are  great  living 
forces  and  get  their  students  to  accomplish  the  very  best  kind 
of  work,  while  others  succeed  poorly  and  only  through  com- 
pulsion. The  former  are  able  to  stimulate  and  arouse  en- 
thusiasm, the  latter  inefficient  because  they  cannot  make  the 
right  emotional  appeal. 

Consequently,  in  all  education  the  understanding  of  and 
right  education  of  the  feelings  and  emotions  are  fundamental. 
Pestalozzi  said:  "Secure  the  love  of  the  child  and  his  intellec- 
tual education  is  an  easy  matter."  While  an  exhaustive  dis- 
cussion of  the  feelings  and  emotions  will  not  be  necessary  in 

140 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  141 

this  elementary  book,  enough  of  a  description  to  enable  us  to 
analyze  these  states  in  a  general  way  will  be  desirable. 

Meaning  of  Feeling. — The  word  feeling  is  used  in  a  popular 
sense  and  in  a  technical  sense.  We  must  distinguish  carefully 
between  the  two  meanings.  When  one  says  "I  feel  cold,"  "I 
feel  the  wind  blowing  upon  me,"  "  I  feel  the  contact  of  my  pen 
upon  my  skin,"  '*I  feel  the  weight  pressing  down  upon  me," 
he  does  not  use  the  term  feeling  in  a  strict  psychological  sense. 
He  means  rather  that  he  has  experienced  sensations  of  cold, 
contact,  touch,  or  weight.  "I  sense  it"  or  "I  perceive  it" 
would  be  more  accurate  expressions.  But  the  expression  "I 
feel,"  much  like  the  expression  ''learning  by  heart,"  has  come 
to  us  traditionally,  and  like  many  traditions  it  is  difficult  of 
dislodgment.  When  one  says  "It  feels  painful,"  ''It  feels 
pleasant,"  "I  feel  sad,"  "I  feel  happy,"  "His  heart  throbs 
with  patriotic  feelings,"  the  expressions  are  used  to  denote 
different  mental  states  from  the  ones  first  indicated  in  the 
paragraph.  The  word  in  the  former  referred  to  perception, 
to  intellectual  processes.  That  is,  it  was  incorrectly  used  to 
designate  ideas  gained  through  the  sensation  of  touch.  In  the 
latter  cases  it  refers  not  to  the  sensations  or  perceptions,  but 
to  our  pleasure  or  repugnance  connected  with  those  intellec- 
tual states.  Hence  we  may  define  feeling  as  follows:  A  feel- 
ing is  the  simple  pleasurable  or  painful  side  of  any  simple  men- 
tal state;  or,  as  Sully  has  expressed  it,  "feeling  marks  off  the 
pleasure-and-pain  'tone'  or  aspect  of  experience." 

The  lower  forms  of  feeling  are  difficult  to  distinguish  from 
sensations.  For  example,  in  hunger  just  what  is  sensation 
and  what  is  feeling?  The  distinction  must  be  experienced 
personally,  "felt,"  in  order  to  be  appreciated.  No  formal 
word  definition  will  make  it  clear.  In  the  realm  of  the  higher 
feelings  or  emotions  it  is  easy  to  distinguish  between  feelings 
and  sensations  proper.  For  example,  a  feeling  of  patriotism 
or  even  of  fear  or  anger  would  never  be  confused  with  a  sen- 
sation. It  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  lower  feelings  or  those 
which  are  largely  physical  that  they  can  scarcely  be  distin- 
guished from  sensations.     But  certain  selected  examples  will 


142         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

probably  bring  out  a  distinction  which  may  be  appreciated. 
Suppose  we  Hsten  to  a  saw  being  filed,  or  that  we  draw  a  rusty 
nail  through  our  teeth,  or  allow  a  slimy  snake  or  an  insect  to 
crawl  over  the  skin.  We  experience  the  sensation  of  contact, 
but  over  and  above  and  distinct  from  the  sensation  is  a  feeling 
of  disagreeableness.  This  something  is  more  than  knowledge 
giving,  it  is  affective,  it  is  repugnant.  I  look  at  a  beautiful  pic- 
ture, or  witness  a  noble  deed,  and  I  experience  something  not 
merely  knowledge  giving  or  intellectual — I  am  pleased.  This 
affective  state  is  a  complex  feeling,  really  an  emotion,  which 
is  later  defined. 

Professor  Titchener  has  given  us  one  of  the  clearest  dis- 
cussions of  the  distinction  between  feelings  and  sensations, 
and  which  I  venture  to  reproduce.     He  writes: 

Let  us  introspect  a  true  feeling  {A  Primer  of  Psychology,  p.  6i) — 
say,  the  feeling  of  drowsiness — and  convince  ourselves  that  it  is  made 
up  of  sensation  and  affection.  Drowsiness  begins,  on  the  sensation 
side,  with  a  sensation  of  pressure  on  the  upper  eyelids,  with  a  tickling 
in  the  throat  that  leads  to  yawning  and  so  brings  a  complex  of  muscu- 
lar sensations,  and  with  a  sensation  of  pressure  at  the  back  of  the  neck 
(the  head  droops).  The  lids  grow  constantly  heavier;  breathing  gets 
slower  and  deeper,  so  that  its  sensations  change;  the  lower  jaw  becomes 
heavy,  so  that  the  mouth  opens  and  the  chin  falls  forward  on  the 
breast  (pressure  sensations) ;  the  neck  sensations  become  stronger,  the 
head  heavier;  and  lastly  the  limbs  grow  heavy,  and  arrange  them- 
selves by  their  own  weight.  Sensations  of  temperature  come  from 
the  surface  of  the  skin,  thrills  of  warmth  running  their  course  at  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  limbs  and  trunk.  Over  all  this  mass  of  sensation  is 
spread  an  affection;  an  easy,  comfortable  pleasantness.  And  the  affec- 
tion outweighs  the  sensation;  we  know  better  that  we  "feel  comforta- 
ble" than  that  sensations  are  coming  in  from  this  or  that  organ. — The 
total  process,  then,  has  all  the  marks  of  a  true  feeUng. 

For  these  simple,  elementary,  affective  states  we  will  reserve 
the  name  feelings,  and  to  the  more  complex  and  seemingly 
"more  mental"  ones  we  will  apply  the  term  emotions.  This 
does  not  imply  that  they  are  different  in  origin  or  kind ;  only 
different  in  degree. 

Meaning  of  Emotion. — An  emotion  is  the  complex  agreeable 
or  painful  side  of  any  mental  state.     This  correctly  implies  that 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  143 

emotions  are  not  different  in  kind  from  feelings,  but  merely 
different  in  degree.  As  sense-feelings  are  concomitants  of 
sensations  and  simple  perceptions,  likewise  emotions  arise  in 
connection  with  higher  and  more  complex  intellection.  Mere 
sensations  or  perceptions,  such  as  looking  at  colors  or  symbols 
or  being  cut  by  a  knife,  cannot  arouse  emotions.  They  may 
arouse  feelings  of  pain.  When  we  apperceive  the  import  of 
symbols  which  convey  some  associational  knowledge,  such  as 
a  telegram  might  bring,  we  may  be  aroused  to  the  deepest 
emotion  of  grief  or  the  highest  ecstasy  of  joy.  A  good  dinner, 
warm  clothing,  a  good  fire,  produce  sensations  and  pleasur- 
able bodily  feelings,  but  in  themselves  they  cannot  arouse 
emotions.  They  may  suggest  higher  thoughts  and  those  in 
turn  be  accompanied  by  emotions. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  there  is  an  absolute  line 
of  demarcation  betsveen  feelings  and  emotions.  Sense-feel- 
ings doubtless  enter  into  the  most  highly  developed  emotions 
much  more  than  we  realize.  True  emotions  are  very  directly 
related  to  the  higher  intellectual  states.  This  relationship  is 
full  of  pedagogical  significance.  Only  a  well-developed  intel- 
lect can  experience  profound  emotions.  Sometimes  there  are 
outward  manifestations  of  deep  emotion,  e.  g.,  love,  fidelity, 
or  religious  emotion,  in  persons  of  low  intelligence,  but  they 
are  not  real.  Instead  of  being  the  accompaniment  of  pro- 
found conviction  deliberately  arrived  at,  they  are  largely  imi- 
tative and  often  belong  to  egoistic  sense-feelings.  A  boy  can- 
not be  taught  genuine  patriotism  merely  by  shooting  fire- 
crackers, being  feasted  upon  peanuts  and  candy,  by  waving 
a  flag,  tooting  a  tin  horn,  or  shouting  himself  hoarse.  Before 
the  genuine  sentiment  arises  which  makes  him  really  live  for 
his  country  as  well  as  to  be  willing  to  die  for  it,  he  must  under- 
stand the  deep  significance  of  the  manifold  duties  and  privi- 
leges of  citizenship.  This  the  boy  does  not  appreciate,  and 
the  ignoramus  cannot. 

Similarly  with  love.  The  youth  believes  himself  in  love 
when  it  is  a  mere  sense-feeling,  passion,  and  egoistic  pleasure 
which    dominate    him.     Only    with    increased    intelligence, 


144    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

broader  experience,  wider  outlook,  appreciation  of  its  duties 
and  responsibilities,  does  the  real  sentiment  develop.  Unfor- 
tunately, alas,  too  many  never  reach  this  stage  !  The  alarm- 
ing number  of  divorces,  the  instances  of  broken  friendships, 
the  rare  cases  of  great  sacrifices  for  others,  all  attest  the  fore- 
going conclusion.  There  is  much  love  in  the  world  which  is 
genuinely  altruistic,  but  there  is  much  that  passes  under  the 
name  of  love  that  contains  not  a  germ  of  altruism.  Love  is 
indeed  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world,  and  many  there  are  so 
small  and  stunted  as  never  to  comprehend  its  real  meaning 
nor  feel  its  impulses. 

The  Lange- James  Theory  of  the  Emotions. — There  is  a  very 
close  relation  between  the  expression  of  an  emotion  and  the 
emotion  itself.  If  one  could  suppress  all  expression  of  fear 
or  grief,  undoubtedly  the  fear  and  grief  w^ould  be  much  re- 
duced. Likewise  joy  and  gladness  that  are  not  expressed  in 
some  way  are  certain  to  be  much  less  than  if  they  were  given 
customary  expression.  An  interesting  question  was  raised  by 
Professor  James,  of  Harvard,  and  Professor  Lange,  a  Scan- 
dinavian psychologist,  regarding  the  order  of  occurrence  of 
emotions  and  their  expression.  The  popular  theory  is  that 
the  sequence  is  as  follows:  (i)  Knowledge,  (2)  The  emotion, 
(3)  The  expression.  But  Lange  and  James  object,  saying 
that  the  real  order  is:  (i)  Knowledge,  (2)  The  expression,  (3) 
The  emotion.  James's  classical  illustration  in  support  of  this 
interpretation  is:  "We  see  a  bear;  we  run;  and  then  we  are 
afraid."  "We  feel  sorry  because  we  cry,  angry  because  we 
strike,  afraid  because  we  tremble." 

While  the  interpretation  of  Lange  and  James  is  doubtless 
extreme,  is  there  not  probably  a  reciprocal  relation  between 
emotions  and  their  expression?  Does  not  the  expression  of 
an  emotion  increase  the  emotion,  and  does  not  the  inhibition 
of  its  expression  tend  to  suppress  the  emotion?  It  takes  no 
acute  psychological  observation  to  note  that  an  emotion  once 
initiated  is  greatly  increased  by  giving  way  to  the  outward 
manifestations  of  it.  To  bow  one's  head  when  already  suffer- 
ing grief  lowers  one's  vitality  and  increases  the  grief.     To  be 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  145 

sure,  nursing  the  grief  through  contemplation  of  its  cause  is 
one  source  of  its  production,  but  undoubtedly  the  bowed  head, 
the  curved  spine,  the  lowered  eyelids,  the  drawn  lips,  all  are 
causes  as  well  as  effects.  Who  could  feel  any  enthusiasm  in 
giving  the  college  yell  when  sitting  down  and  with  head 
bowed  low  in  reverential  attitude?  At  the  football-game 
one's  excitement  increases  largely  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  noise  and  motion  he  makes. 

It  is  bad  pedagogy  to  try  to  secure  enthusiasm  by  restricting 
bodily  movement.  Soldiers  hear  the  "Quick-step,  march!" 
their  pace  quickens  and  their  courage  rises  simultaneously. 
The  influence  of  music  in  war  is  tremendous.  Let  the  sol- 
diers hear  a  funeral  dirge.  Their  pace  slackens  and  their 
spirits  fall.  "Every  one  knows  how  panic  is  increased  by 
flight,  and  how  the  giving  way  to  the  symptoms  of  grief  or 
anger  increases  those  passions  themselves.  Each  fit  of  sob- 
bing makes  the  sorrow  more  acute,  and  calls  forth  another  fit 
stronger  still,  until  at  last  repose  only  ensues  with  lassitude 
and  with  the  apparent  exhaustion  of  the  machinery.  In  rage, 
it  is  notorious  how  we  'work  ourselves  up'  to  a  climax  by 
repeated  outbreaks  of  expression.  Refuse  to  express  a  pas- 
sion, and  it  dies.  Count  ten  before  venting  your  anger,  and 
its  occasion  seems  ridiculous.  Whistling  to  keep  up  courage 
is  no  mere  figure  of  speech.  On  the  other  hand,  sit  all  day  in 
a  moping  posture,  sigh,  and  reply  to  everything  in  a  dismal 
voice,  and  your  melancholy  lingers.  There  is  no  more  valu- 
able precept  in  moral  education  than  this,  as  all  who  have 
experienced  know:  if  we  wish  to  conquer  undesirable  emo- 
tional tendencies  in  ourselves,  we  must  assiduously,  and  in  the 
first  instance  cold-bloodedly,  go  through  the  outward  move- 
ments of  those  contrary  dispositions  which  we  prefer  to  culti- 
vate. The  reward  of  persistency  will  infallibly  come,  in  the 
fading  out  of  the  sullenness  or  depression,  and  the  advent  of 
real  cheerfulness  and  kindliness  in  their  stead.  Smooth  the 
brow,  brighten  the  eye,  contract  the  dorsal  rather  than  the 
ventral  aspect  of  the  frame,  and  speak  in  a  major  key,  pass 
the  genial  compliment,  and  your  heart  must  be  frigid  indeed 


146         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

if  It  do  not  gradually  thaw!"  {Principles  of  Psychology,  II, 
p.  462.) 

Although  I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  Lange-James  theory  in 
its  entirety,  I  recognize  many  facts  which  go  to  show  that  the 
various  bodily  conditions  have  a  very  marked  influence  upon 
the  emotions.  One  with  biliousness  cannot  easily  feel  in  a 
happy  mood.  Our  general  attitude  toward  life  is  strongly 
colored  by  our  state  of  health.  With  sound  bodies  and  good 
digestion  all  the  world  is  apt  to  appear  roseate.  But  a  poor 
night's  rest  or  an  unusual  ache  is  most  sure  to  give  it  a  most 
sombre  tint.  There  is  undoubtedly  a  very  definite  interrela- 
tion among  the  three  states — knowledge,  emotion,  action. 
They  are  probably  three  inseparable  phases  of  every  complex 
psychophysical  state,  and  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  be 
entirely  isolated.  Sometimes  one  phase  may  preponderate, 
sometimes  another.  The  exercise  of  any  one  undoubtedly  in- 
fluences each  of  the  others.  An  exhaustive  discussion  of  the 
theoretical  aspects  of  the  question  will  not  be  attempted  in 
this  connection.  The  reader  who  is  interested  may  refer  to 
James,*  Lange,t  or  Ribot.J  A  few  illustrations  will,  how- 
ever, be  adduced  to  show  the  exceedingly  close  interdepen- 
dence between  the  emotions  and  the  physical  expressions.  An 
attempt  will  also  be  made  to  indicate  some  of  the  many  very 
important  educational  bearings. 

We  know  that  in  play-acting  when  we  portray  a  given  char- 
acter we  tend  to  feel  the  emotional  states  represented.  For 
this  reason  many  believe  it  is  dangerous  to  assume  the  role  of 
a  rogue  or  a  rascal.  Taking  the  role  of  a  noble  character  up- 
lifts one  and  stirs  lofty  desires.  Undoubtedly  every  one  is 
moved  emotionally  by  assuming  an  attitude  of  prayer  or  de- 
votion. A  boy  whistles  on  going  through  a  lonely  place  at 
night,  and  thereby  feels  less  afraid.  When  he  has  been  hurt 
by  a  school  fellow  or  worsted  in  an  encounter,  he  laughs  a 
bravado  laugh  though  ready  to  cry,  and  thereby  dispels  the 
desire  to  cry  and  manages  to  feel  courage,  which  was  slipping 

*0p.  cit.  t  Ueher  Gemiithsbewegungen,  Leipsic,  1887. 

J  The  Psychology  of  the  Emotions. 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   EMOTIONS  147 

away.  We  tell  a  crying  child,  "Dry  your  eyes  and  you'll  feel 
better,"  rather  than  "Feel  better  and  then  your  tears  will 
cease." 

Educational  Suggestions  from  the  Lange- James  Theory. — 
The  educational  bearings  of  this  theory  are  manifold  and  far- 
reaching.  Actions  and  states  constantly  repeated  determine 
what  one  is.  What  one  is  he  comes  to  believe  in  and  the  cus- 
tomary becomes  pleasurable,  at  least  in  a  negative  way.  Con- 
sequently it  is  good  pedagogy  to  teach  children,  for  example, 
to  assume  an  attitude  of  cheerfulness,  to  sit  up  straight,  to 
expand  the  lungs,  to  walk  sprightly,  to  have  a  good  laugh 
occasionally.  It  all  reacts  upon  their  moods.  For  a  person 
to  go  bent  over,  with  his  back  humped  up  and  his  chest 
drawn  in,  is  sufficient  reason  for  him  to  become  low-spirited. 
Plenty  of  oxygen,  sufficient  muscular  exercise,  and  good  bodily 
postures  and  habits  are  not  only  conducive  to  but  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  cheerfulness.  The  one  who 
becomes  anaemic  and  nerveless  is  the  one  who  is  irritable  and 
cross.  Many  external  conditions  contribute  not  a  little  to 
one's  emotional  tone.  The  weather  determines,  more  than 
we  think,  the  trend  of  one's  conduct.  Poor  lighting  is  often 
responsible  for  not  only  defective  vision  and  bad  headaches 
but  also  for  much  peevishness.  Because  of  the  intimate  rela- 
tions between  the  emotions  and  the  intellectual  and  volitional 
states,  it  is  important  for  the  educator  to  bear  in  mind  con- 
stantly the  necessity  of  securing  bodily  comfort  and  emotional 
buoyancy.  Heating,  lighting,  ventilation,  all  have  their  ef- 
fects. Proper  seating  is  a  feature  too  httle  considered. 
Cramped  position  or  dangling  feet  produce  irritability,  to  say 
nothing  of  bodily  malformations.  Recesses,  alternation  of 
work  and  play,  must  also  be  considered  in  trying  to  secure 
desirable  emotional  attitudes. 

Through  imitation  one  unconsciously  assumes  the  attitudes 
of  those  about  him.  Consequently  imitation  plays  a  most 
important  part  in  the  determination  of  the  emotions.  A  light- 
hearted  person  diffuses  his  feelings  among  all  whom  he  meets. 
Similarly  one  who  is  low-spirited  casts  a  spell  of  gloom  over 


148         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

all  his  associates.  Feelings  are  even  more  contagious  than 
disease.  Children  are  very  quick  to  be  inoculated  with  the 
moods  affecting  the  teacher.  On  those  days  when  children 
are  bad-natured,  fretful,  or  especially  trying,  the  cause  can 
usually  be  traced  to  some  external  influence — bad  weather,  an 
irritable  teacher,  improper  lighting,  insufficient  nutrition,  or 
physical  discomfort. 

The  Emotion  of  Fear. — ^This  emotion  has  played  a  very  im- 
portant role  in  civilization.  It  is  fundamentally  the  basis  of 
self-preservation.  Only  through  fear  of  personal  pain  does 
the  child  learn  to  avoid  harmful  experiences.  In  the  home, 
in  the  school,  and  in  society,  fear  is  one  of  the  great  deterrents 
to  misconduct  and  crime.  Even  in  religion  its  place  has  been 
quite  prominent,  often  even  dominant. 

The  telling  of  sensational  stories  is  one  of  the  most  frequent 
causes  of  fear  in  children.  Injudicious  servants,  playmates, 
and  even  parents  and  teachers,  frequently  tell  children  of  gob- 
lins, ghosts,  and  bogies,  sometimes  just  to  interest  children, 
but  even  more  often  to  scare  them.  The  children  are  not  sel- 
dom frightened  into  obedience  by  threats  of  being  taken  by 
the  bogey  man  or  the  bears.  Soon  all  dark  and  unexplored 
places  are  through  the  imagination  peopled  with  frightful 
creatures.  The  child  comes  to  dread  a  new  situation  and 
becomes  timid  and  hesitant  in  undertaking  new  things.  If 
the  child  is  neurotic  in  addition  to  this  psychical  condition, 
he  is  easily  made  a  coward.  Bashful  children  injudiciously 
treated  are  frequently  made  to  suffer  untold  agonies  through 
imagining  ridicule  or  censure. 

A  bashfully  inclined  child,  by  being  repressed  and  made  to 
fear  being  observed,  and  through  imagination  of  unfavorable 
comment,  can  be  made  a  lifelong  social  coward.  When  we 
are  thinking  of  making  Young  America  "mind"  or  "to  be 
seen  and  not  heard,"  we  should  consider  whether  we  may  not 
be  repressing  the  very  boldness  which  will  make  for  social  and 
moral  courage  in  manhood  and  womanhood.  Better  smile  at 
a  little  overconfidence  or  put  up  with  egotism  which  smacks 
of  impudence  than  repress  every  manly  and  womanly  instinct 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  149 

of  courage.  There  are  doubtless  thousands  of  weak-willed, 
shamefaced,  llmp-spined  men  in  the  world  who  owe  their  con- 
dition to  fears  engendered  by  overstrict  and  injudicious  par- 
ents. To  have  made  them  valiant  and  courageous  there 
would  have  been  necessary  only  a  little  protection  from  foolish 
fears  and  a  stimulating  encouragement  to  have  confidence  in 
their  own  powers.  To  be  told  continually  that  one  will  fail 
in  an  undertaking  is  with  the  naturally  timid  almost  fatal  to 
success.  It  is  often  unfortunate  to  have  children  in  school 
obtrusive  in  their  boldness,  but  it  is  probably  more  unfortu- 
nate to  have  a  child  utterly  distrustful  of  his  own  powers. 
Life  is  so  full  of  real  disappointments  that  no  one  needs  to  be 
harassed  with  fears  of  any  unnecessarily  imagined  ones.  Self- 
confidence  is  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in  success. 

The  results  of  the  use  or  the  abuse  of  fear  may  be  suggested 
in  the  following: 


Timidity 
Cowardice 
Bashfulness 
Self-consciousness 


Fear   

(Negative)  (Positive) 


Caution 
Prudence 
Foresight 
Fear  of  wrong 


It  is  apparent  that  to  educate  the  child  so  that  he  shall 
learn  to  fear  wisely  and  effectively  is  a  very  important  part  of 
education.  The  lowest  form  of  fear  is  instinctive  and  directed 
toward  ^elf -preservation.  Of  the  highest  we  may  voice  the 
proverb  that  "The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wis- 
dom." Marden  says:  "Doubt,  uncertainty,  fear  of  failure, 
are  the  greatest  enemies  of  mankind.  No  man  ever  yet  ac- 
compHshed  a  great  deed  with  a  doubt  clouding  his  mind. 
The  miracles  of  civilization  have  been  performed  by  men  and 
women  who  believed  in  themselves.  In  spite  of  ridicule,  in- 
credulity, and  abuse  they  maintained  unwavering  faith  in 
their  power  to  accomplish  the  tasks  to  which  they  had  set 
themselves." 

The  following  good  suggestions  are  in  entire  harmony  with 
the  teachings  of  the  Lange-James  theory  of  the  emotions: 
"  'Assume  a  virtue  if  you  have  it  not'  is  sound  advice.     There 


I50    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

is  a  great  deal  in  assuming  the  part  or  character  you  desire  to 
play  in  life's  drama.  H  you  wish  to  take  the  part  of  a  suc- 
cessful man  you  must  assume  the  mental  attitude,  the  out- 
ward manner  of  one.  It  is  not  difficult  to  pick  out  a  success- 
ful man  in  the  street.  If  he  is  a  leader,  a  man  who  relies  upon 
himself,  every  step,  every  movement  indicates  it.  There  is 
assurance  in  his  very  bearing.  He  walks  as  if  he  were  master 
of  himself,  as  though  he  believed  in  his  ability  to  do  things,  to 
bring  about  results.  People  are  impressed  in  spite  of  them- 
selves by  a  confident  bearing.  They  trust  a  man  who  believes 
in  himself;  they  take  his  ability  for  granted,  but  they  have 
only  pity  or  contempt  for  the  self-depreciating  doubter.  The 
man  without  self-confidence  and  iron  will  is  the  plaything  of 
chance,  the  puppet  of  his  environment,  the  slave  of  circum- 
stances. With  these  he  is  king,  ever  master  of  the  situation." 
(Chicago  Record-Herald.) 

The  Educational  Control  and  Uses  of  Anger. — The  child 
should  be  taught  early  to  restrain  angry  passions.  A  habit  of 
flying  into  a  rage  every  time  his  wishes  are  thwarted  is  one 
that  will  prove  a  source  of  great  weakness  in  later  life.  The 
individual  who  goes  into  a  blustering  rage  is  a  weak  opponent 
for  the  man  who  keeps  his  head.  In  argument  or  in  physical 
contests  the  angry  man  dissipates  his  energy  and  becomes  an 
impotent  antagonist. 

However,  the  child  should  be  taught  that  there  is  a  just  type 
of  anger.  He  should  distinguish  between  personal  grievances 
and  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  society.  He  should  be  led  early 
to  look  with  indignation  upon  that  which  is  base,  unjust,  and 
unworthy.  He  should  be  trained  to  look  with  disgust  and 
abhorrence  upon  conduct  that  is  disgraceful  not  only  where 
personal  injury  has  come  to  him  but  whenever  justice  and 
right  have  been  outraged.  Children  must  be  aroused  out  of 
indifference  to  wrongs  witnessed  against  others,  into  active 
championship  of  the  oppressed  and  the  downtrodden.  The 
habit  cannot  be  formed  too  early.  There  is  something  wrong 
with  the  education  of  children  of  lo  years  of  age  if  they  de- 
light in  the  persecution  of  animals,  in  seeing  weak  children 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  151 

bullied  and  abused  by  the  stronger.  Often  children  tease 
others  in  a  thoughtless  way,  but  no  well-trained  child  delights 
in  witnessing  or  causing  real  injury  to  another.  Abraham 
Lincoln,  in  manhood  the  emancipator  of  the  lowly  slave,  in 
boyhood  was  laughed  at  as  the  friend  and  champion  of  the 
poor  inoffensive  turtles  which  were  stoned  by  the  rude  school- 
boys. He  was  as  ready  to  fight  for  the  rights  of  a  turtle  as 
for  the  oppressed  black  man.  Though  teasing  and  bullying 
are  instinctive  in  childhood  and  youth,  they  can  be  and  should 
be  well  under  control  before  the  child  is  10  years  of  age. 

It  is  only  through  the  development  of  the  emotion  of  indig- 
nation against  injustice  that  one  becomes  the  real  friend  of 
society.  Not  to  injure  others  is  well,  but  not  enough;  it  is 
only  negative.  One  must  be  positive  as  well  as  negative. 
Proper  development  of  this  feeling  leads  one  to  defend  his 
friends  and  neighbors,  his  state  and  his  country,  as  well  as 
himself.  It  leads  one  country  to  defend  another  unjustly  at- 
tacked. It  led  the  United  States  to  defend  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines  against  an  outrageous  foe.  It  led  the  Union  to 
dismemberment  when  each  section  believed  itself  to  be  the 
champion  of  certain  inalienable  rights  apparently  violated. 
It  led  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  send  the  flower  of 
her  youth  to  stamp  out  the  world-wide  menace  to  democracy 
and  freedom.  These  feelings  must  actuate  the  philanthro- 
pist, the  minister,  and  the  true  statesman.  The  feeling  is  apt 
to  be  ill  nourished,  because  personal  loss  often  follows  attempts 
to  champion  the  rights  of  society.  Were  the  emotions  prop- 
erly developed  in  all,  our  cities  would  be  well  governed,  our 
streets  clean  and  well  lighted,  public  sanitation  perfect,  our 
children  properly  schooled,  our  laws  better  obeyed,  justice 
better  administered,  our  taxes  cut  in  half,  our  public  parks 
increased,  public  nuisances  abated,  the  poverty-stricken  pro- 
vided with  work,  and  municipal  corruption  eliminated.  But 
so  long  as  the  public  conscience  is  apathetic  and  we  do  not 
feel  indignant  at  public  wrongs  unless  we  are  affected  indi- 
vidually, just  so  long  will  public  wrongs  continue.  We  are  too 
apt  to  close  our  eyes  to  everything  that  does  not  strike  home. 


152    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

The  criminal  knows  this.  Only  the  individuals  wronged  are 
anxious  to  testify  against  the  criminal,  and  they  are  easily 
eluded.  But  when  every  individual  in  a  community  is  ready 
to  champion  the  rights  of  every  other  individual  in  the  com- 
munity, then  the  criminal  finds  it  dangerous  to  operate  there. 
We  need  a  multitude  of  men  such  as  one  of  our  great  cities 
recently  furnished  us  in  the  person  of  a  young  lawyer,  who 
tracked  to  their  hiding-places  and  brought  to  the  bar  of  jus- 
tice a  whole  ring  of  corrupt  city  officials.  So  unselfish  was 
he  that  he  rejected  the  offer  of  the  grateful  city  of  a  house 
and  lot  as  a  recognition  of  his  meritorious  altruism.  His  ser- 
vices had  been  only  in  the  cause  of  right  and  as  an  indignant 
rebuke  against  the  evils  which  the  city  suffered.  It  was  only 
such  service  as  every  ideal  citizen  ought  to  be  willing  to  render. 

The  child  should  also  be  taught  to  stand  up  for  his  personal 
rights.  To  be  sure,  he  must  learn  not  to  assume  those  which 
do  not  belong  to  him.  But  he  must  learn  to  know  his  rights 
and  to  maintain  them.  This  means  that  he  must  not  allow 
others  to  impose  upon  him  or  to  bully  him.  We  applaud  the 
nation  which  fights  the  foe  that  insults  her  colors,  and  why 
not  the  individuals  that  maintain  their  personal  dignity? 
The  boy  or  girl  who  is  habitually  teased  and  bulHed  is  usually 
one  with  cowardly  traits.  The  one  who  is  cowardly  in  defense 
of  himself  will  seldom  exhibit  courage  in  protecting  the  rights 
of  others.  Every  one  should  have  self-respect  and  should 
maintain  it.  Righteous  indignation  is  not  only  permissible 
but  commendable  whenever  injustice  has  been  witnessed, 
whether  the  offense  is  against  oneself  or  against  society. 

Sympathy  means  a  condition  in  which  one  enters  into  the 
feelings  of  another,  sharing  the  pleasures  or  pains.  It  is  an 
emotion  of  rather  late  appearance.  Although  we  are  told 
that  it  exists  among  the  lower  animals,  it  is  there  of  a  very 
low  order.  Except  as  a  manifestation  of  maternal  instinct 
in  the  animals  we  find  very  Httle  indication  of  it.  Most  ani- 
mals leave  wounded  or  disabled  comrades  to  their  hard  fate. 
Romanes  believes  that  sympathy  is  first  seen  among  the  hy- 
menoptera.      He  places  its  first  appearance  in  the  child  at 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  153 

about  five  months.  Sigismund  records  that  he  noticed  sym- 
pathy at  the  end  of  three  months.  Sully  and  Tiedemann  be- 
lieve that  they  have  noticed  it  as  early  as  the  end  of  the 
second  month.  But  these  instances  are  all  cases  of  imitation 
and  have  very  little  of  genuine  sympathy  in  them.  One  child 
will  cry  when  another  cries  or  sometimes  when  it  hears  music, 
but  it  is  questionable  how  far  the  feelings  are  shared,  and  still 
more  questionable  whether  there  is  a  desire  to  enter  into  the 
other's  feelings,  which  is  often  true  in  higher  stages  of  sym- 
pathy. At  2  years  and  10  months  of  age  my  boy  was 
looking  at  a  picture  of  a  boy  crying,  and  said : ''  Boy  hain't  got 
no  mudder."  I  answer,  "No,  the  boy  has  no  mother,"  think- 
ing merely  to  coincide  with  his  expression.  He  repeated  the 
same  thing  again,  and  burst  into  tears  and  sobbed  bitterly. 
I  cannot  think  it  was  a  deeper  feeling  than  mere  contagion 
from  the  appearance  of  the  crying  child,  for  he  had  absolutely 
no  idea  of  the  import  of  what  he  said.  He  knew  nothing  of 
death  or  the  meaning  of  bereavement. 

To  really  sympathize,  one  must  put  himself  in  another's 
place.  This  often  requires  imagination  of  the  other's  states. 
To  imagine  anything,  one  must  have  had  a  previous  experience 
of  that  thing.  One  must  at  least  understand  the  conditions 
producing  the  affective  states  of  another  in  order  to  sym- 
pathize with  them.  Circumscribed  experiences  often  make  it 
impossible  for  an  individual  to  have  broad  sympathies.  There 
is  nothing  that  gives  one  such  powers  for  usefulness  as  breadth 
and  variety  of  sympathies.  No  person  in  public  relations  can 
hope  to  succeed  in  drawing  masses  to  him  unless  he  can  go 
out  to  meet  them  in  sympathy.  To  sympathize  with  them 
means  that  he  must  understand  their  point  of  view.  The 
great  man  who,  like  Lincoln,  can  perform  some  act  which  all 
the  masses  can  understand  and  appreciate  is  the  one  who 
can  gain  their  sympathies.  They  understand  the  simple, 
homely,  every-day  acts,  and  therefore  their  sympathies  are 
enlisted.  The  more  philosophic  acts  of  statesmanship  are 
not  understood,  but  through  the  commonplace  acts  faith  is 
engendered.      The  great  statesman  who  has  only  the  philo- 


154    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

sophic  view,  and  who  can  never  come  to  the  people's  level, 
will  never  raise  the  people  to  his  level.  In  thinking  of  Queen 
Victoria,  all  else  is  forgotten  about  her  by  the  multitude  ex- 
cept that  she  was  a  tender  mother,  a  devoted  wife,  and  a  duti- 
ful daughter.  Because  of  these  characteristics  she  will  go 
down  through  all  the  ages  beloved  by  the  masses. 

The  teacher  who  cannot  meet  pupils  on  their  own  level, 
though  he  may  be  ever  so  scholarly,  wise,  and  philosophically 
just,  will  never  enlist  their  sympathies.  Many  teachers  have 
either  forgotten  childhood  or  else  they  never  had  a  real  child- 
hood, for  the  pupil's  actions  are  no  longer  comprehensible  to 
them.  They  do  not  and  probably  cannot  sympathize  with 
child  life.  Such  teachers  should  either  cultivate  an  intelli- 
gent acquaintance  with  child  Hfe,  so  as  to  understand  and 
appreciate  it,  or  quit  the  business  of  teaching.  It  is  lamenta- 
ble that  in  the  teachers'  preparation  the  main  emphasis  has 
been  placed  upon  the  understanding  of  subject-matter  and 
so  little  to  developing  a  deeper  and  more  sympathetic  under- 
standing of  child  life. 

It  is  highly  important  that  pupils  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
school  and  its  functions.  This  is  often,  too  often,  not  the 
case.  Pupils  feel  that  the  teacher  is  an  autocrat  dictating 
laws  without  reference  to  the  wishes  or  even  welfare  of  the 
children  themselves.  Few  openly  rebel,  though  many  secretly 
long  for  freedom.  Such  need  not  be  the  case  if  pupils  are 
only  led  to  see  the  meaning  of  school  rules  and  regulations, 
and  if  they  have  developed  a  feeling  of  personal  ownership  in 
the  school.  Though  I  have  no  patience  with  the  artificial 
schemes  of  self-government,  so  called,  in  which  the  teacher 
abandons  all  rights,  privileges,  and  authority,  yet  pupil  co- 
operation must  be  secured.  This  can  only  come  through 
their  understanding  of  the  aims,  purposes,  and  means  of  gov- 
ernment. They  should  participate  and  co-operate  to  the  full- 
est extent  possible,  but,  what  is  equally  as  important,  they 
should  understand  that  their  immaturity  and  their  inexperi- 
ence place  limitations  upon  their  powers  of  governing  wisely, 
and  hence  the  necessity  of  acquiescing   in  those  means  em- 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   EMOTIONS  155 

ployed  by  teachers  and  school  boards.  They  should  be  led 
to  see  that  the  school  is  theirs,  and  that  whatever  affects  the 
individual  affects  the  school,  also  that  whatever  affects  the 
school  in  turn  affects  the  pupils  in  the  school.  As  soon  as  a 
correct  understanding  is  gained,  a  sense  of  participation  re- 
sults. As  soon  as  a  sense  of  participation  is  developed,  the 
feeling  of  sympathy  begins  to  grow. 

From  the  standpoint  of  social  needs  it  is  greatly  to  be  de- 
sired that  children  become  sympathetic  with  the  various 
forms  of  political  and  social  organizations.  This  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  obeying  the  laws  of  the  development  of  sym- 
pathy, viz.,  by  giving  a  thorough  knowledge  of  those  things 
with  which  the  children  ought  to  sympathize.  The  classes  of 
people  who  are  out  of  sympathy  with  institutions  are  the 
ones  who  do  not  understand  them.  Being  in  sympathy  with 
our  institutions  does  not  mean  being  satisfied  with  everything, 
but  it  does  mean  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  conditions 
under  which  they  have  been  developed  and  are  developing, 
and  also  patience  with  the  slow  pace  of  development.  It 
should  also  reveal  definitely  that  social  development  depends 
upon  the  active  co-operation  of  all  the  individuals  composing 
society.  The  doctrine  of  helpful  service  needs  much  empha- 
sis in  our  homes,  schools,  and  churches. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Distinguish  between  a  feeling  and  an  emotion.  2.  State  the  Lange- 
James  theory  of  the  emotions.  3.  What  relation  is  there  between  physical 
states  and  emotions?  4.  Is  there  a  direct  relation  between  intelligence 
and  the  emotions?  5.  Can  a  feeble-minded  individual  be  honest,  brave, 
patriotic?  6.  Are  all  intelligent  persons  necessarily  honest,  brave,  patri- 
otic? 7.  How  can  the  school  help  in  making  children  honest,  brave,  pa- 
triotic? 8.  What  is  the  educational  significance  of  the  Lange-James 
theory?  9.  Are  fear,  anger,  and  love  instinctive?  10.  What  school  sub- 
jects contribute  to  the  education  of  the  emotions  most  ?  least  ? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXV. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  X. 

3.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chaps.  V,  VI. 

4.  Norsworthy  and  Whitley,  Psychology  of  Childhood,  chap.  V. 

5.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  XII. 

6.  Woodworth,  Psychology :  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chaps.  VIII,  IX. 


CHAPTER  XI 
MOTIVATION  AND  INITIATIVE 

What  Is  Interest? — Whenever  we  like  anything,  whenever 
we  pay  attention  to  anything,  we  are  interested  in  it.  Things 
which  interest  us  are  voluntarily  and  purposely  attended  to 
without  external  compulsion.  A  majority  of  the  stimulations 
of  the  senses  never  receive  attention  because  they  have  no 
interest  for  us.  James  wrote  {Principles  of  Psychology,  I,  pp. 
402-403): 

Millions  of  items  of  the  outward  order  are  present  to  my  senses 
which  never  properly  enter  into  my  experience.  Why?  Because  they 
have  no  interest  for  me.  My  experience  is  what  I  agree  to  attend  to. 
Only  those  items  which  I  notice  shape  my  mind.  Without  selective 
interest,  experience  is  an  utter  chaos.  Interest  alone  gives  accent  and 
emphasis,  Hght  and  shade,  background  and  foreground — intelligible 
perspective,  in  a  word.  It  varies  in  every  creature,  but  without  it  the 
consciousness  of  every  creature  would  be  a  gray,  chaotic  indiscrimi- 
nateness,  impossible  for  us  even  to  conceive. 

Interest  as  a  Means. — Many  teachers  seem  to  regard  inter- 
est merely  as  a  means  of  getting  pupils  to  do  disagreeable 
tasks;  a  sort  of  sugar  coating  which  will  render  bitter  pills 
less  objectionable.  Some  arithmetic  is  to  be  mastered,  and 
devices  must  be  sought  which  will  help  accomplish  that  end. 
Under  the  guise  of  one  thing  pupils  are  to  get  some  other 
thing.  New  words  are  to  be  mastered.  Call  them  fishes  in 
a  pond;  call  leaves  fairies;  call  geography  lessons  journeys, 
etc.  These  may  be  very  good  devices,  but  the  interest  is 
not  in  the  thing  to  be  acquired.  The  young  teacher  is  apt  to 
think  that  interest  is  largely  a  matter  of  manner  of  presenta- 
tion of  a  subject.  It  is  supposed  that  by  proper  skill,  suffi- 
cient smiles,  a  lively  manner,  and  plenty  of  amusing  stories 
that  any  subject  can  be  made  interesting  to  any  pupils.     The 

156 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  157 

whole  Interest  is  supposed  to  inhere  in  the  teacher.  To  keep 
the  pupils  good-natured,  to  keep  them  in  school,  to  avoid 
conflict,  to  cause  them  to  like  her,  seem  to  be  the  dominating 
influences. 

Such  a  teacher  seldom  cares  what  kind  of  an  interest  is  felt 
in  the  subject  after  the  task  has  been  accomplished.  Will 
the  pupil  choose  this  subject  later  on?  Does  he  apply  it  to 
his  daily  life  with  pleasure,  or  does  he  drop  it  out  of  his  exist- 
ence when  it  ceases  to  be  his  lesson?  These  results  do  not 
seem  to  be  of  concern.  Interest  to  such  means  pleasure, 
amusement,  having  a  good  time.  They  usually  feel  that 
struggle,  work,  overcoming  of  obstacles  are  antagonistic  to 
interest.  In  planning  to  keep  pupils  interested  they  usually 
try  to  amuse  them,  to  relieve  from  difficulties,  to  smooth  the 
path. 

Interest  as  an  End. — But  while  it  is  desirable  to  produce 
interest  in  order  to  secure  study,  interest  as  an  end  is  desir- 
able. One  of  the  great  aims  of  education  should  be  to  stimu- 
late abiding  interests  in  the  studies  themselves,  and  also  to 
make  the  studies  lead  to  permanent  and  desirable  life  inter- 
ests. Spencer  tells  us  {Education,  p.  127)  that  "As  a  final 
test  by  which  to  judge  any  plan  of  culture,  should  come  the 
question,  Does  it  create  a  pleasurable  excitement  in  the 
pupils ?"  Again  he  says  that  if  a  given  course  of  study  ''pro- 
duce no  interest,  or  less  interest  than  another  course,  we 
should  rehnquish  it."     McMurry  says: 

The  common  understanding  has  been  that  instruction  is  aiming  at 
knowledge,  and  that  interest  is  one  of  the  means  by  which  that  aim 
can  be  best  attained;  in  brief,  knowledge  is  the  end  and  interest  the 
means.  But  the  new  standpoint  asserts  interest  to  be  the  highest 
aim  of  instruction,  and  ideas  to  be  the  means  by  which  that  object  can 
be  reached;  that  is,  interest  is  the  end  and  knowledge  is  the  means. 
Thus  the  tables  have  been  turned.  There  is  now  a  strong  inclination 
on  the  part  of  many  to  measure  the  success  of  years  of  teaching  not  by 
the  quantity  of  information  one  possesses  on  Commencement  Day, 
but  by  the  degree  of  interest  engendered  in  the  lines  of  study  followed. 
The  attitude  of  mind  toward  study  is,  to  them,  the  most  important 
point.     {Educational  Review,  11,  p.  147.) 


158    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Interest  and  Effort. — Many  make  the  mistake  of  regarding 
interest  and  effort  as  directly  opposed.  Such  is  a  very  errone- 
ous interpretation.  Interest  may,  in  fact,  lead  to  the  most 
strenuous  effort.  The  greater  the  enthusiasm  in  one's  work 
the  better  it  will  be  accomplished.  But  there  is  no  dodging 
the  stern  reality  that  life  is  full  of  drudgery  and  detail  work, 
and  interest  will  not  attach  to  the  thing  itself  or  very  strongly 
to  the  details.  The  scientist  has  to  deal  with  long,  tedious 
columns  of  figures,  which  must  be  added,  averages  must  be 
found,  and  averages  of  averages,  maximum  amounts,  and 
minimal  differences,  average  errors,  average  deviations,  and 
the  Hke;  all  of  these  processes  requiring  drudgery  which  few 
can  stand  without  feeling  great  fatigue.  Now  were  his  in- 
terest not  above  and  beyond  in  something  more  ultimate  he 
would  never  get  through  the  task. 

We  do  not  wish  to  have  the  child  do  things  unwillingly. 
Things  should  not  be  done  because  they  are  disagreeable,  but 
neither  should  necessary  things  be  omitted  because  disagree- 
able. Every  one  has  felt  more  self-respect  many  times  when 
he  persisted  in  pursuing  to  the  finish  some  task  involving  dis- 
agreeable drudgery.  I  believe  the  farmer  boy  does  when  he 
finishes  well  the  field  of  corn  among  the  stumps,  binds  the 
bundles  in  the  hot  harvest  sun,  ploughs  the  stony  field,  or 
repairs  properly  the  battered  fence.  So,  too,  the  child  in 
school  feels  satisfaction  and  pride  when  he  has  a  good  geogra- 
phy lesson,  a  perfect  spelling-list,  or  a  model  page  of  writing, 
even  though  the  mind  would  have  feasted  on  marble-playing, 
chasing  butterflies,  making  rabbit-traps,  or  going  swimming. 
A  university  student  once  said  to  me:  "I  would  like  to  take 
a  certain  attractive  course,  but  I  have  started  this  German;  I 
have  no  end  of  difficulty  with  it,  and  I  feel  that  to  give  it  up 
would  be  like  yielding  to  temptation.  To  fight  it  out  will  be 
to  strengthen  my  moral  nature."  Who  that  has  any  stamina 
has  not  worked  for  hours  to  get  the  right  answer  to  a  problem 
or  a  puzzle,  even  though  the  answer  were  of  no  consequence 
and  forgotten  in  a  few  minutes  ?  Certainly  the  drudgery  was 
not  interesting.     The  interest  lay  in  conquering,  in  mastery 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  159 

of  inclination  to  ease,  in  the  end  to  be  accomplished.  The 
loafer  would  have  yielded  to  momentary  ease.  The  future 
would  have  been  dismissed. 

Interest  the  Prime  Consideration  in  Education. — Learning 
which  is  not  the  outcome  and  accompaniment  of  pleasurable 
interest  does  not  call  forth  genuine  self-activity  and  does  not 
give  training.  The  influence  is  not  only  negative  but  posi- 
tively dangerous.  It  produced  divided  attention,  and,  as 
Dewey  remarks  {Interest  in  Relation  to  the  Training  of 
the  Will,  p.  11),  ''the  theory  of  effort,  .  .  .  means  a  virtual 
division  of  attention  and  the  corresponding  disintegration  of 
character,  intellectually  and  morally.  ...  A  child  may  be 
externally  entirely  occupied  with  mastering  the  multiplication 
table,  and  be  able  to  reproduce  that  table  when  asked  to  do 
so  by  his  teacher.  The  teacher  may  congratulate  himself  that 
the  child  has  been  so  exercising  his  will-power  as  to  be  forming 
right  intellectual  and  moral  habits.  Not  so,  unless  moral 
habit  be  identified  with  this  ability  to  show  certain  results 
when  required.  The  question  of  moral  training  has  not  been 
touched  until  we  know  what  the  child  has  been  internally 
occupied  with,  what  the  predominating  direction  of  his  atten- 
tion, his  feelings,  his  disposition  has  been  while  engaged  upon 
this  task." 

The  greater  the  amount  of  Interest  the  better.  No  one 
ever  accomplished  much  in  any  direction  until  he  gave  him- 
self to  his  task  body  and  soul.  The  scriptural  injunction, 
"Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might, 
with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy  mind  and  all  thy  strength," 
contains  the  key  to  the  secret  of  success.  Work  should  not 
be  made  disagreeable  or  irksome.  But  even  if  exhausting  or 
irksome,  the  end  to  be  attained  should  be  so  alluring  that  no 
amount  of  disagreeableness  could  drive  us  away. 

A  certain  writer  explained  as  follows  the  drive  that  urged 
him  to  stick  to  his  task: 

As  I  write  these  pages  the  mercury  is  mounting  daily  to  no  degrees 
in  the  shade.  My  room  is  stuffy  and  almost  unbearable,  perspiration 
makes  my  garments  sticky,  my  sweaty  hands  soil  the  paper,  and  the 


i6o    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

hot  wind  occasionally  seizes  my  paper  and  takes  it  pirouetting  across 
the  room.  AU  these  are  annoyances,  sufficient  to  drive  me  from  writ- 
ing pedagogics  to  seek  Lake  Superior  breezes.  No  one  has  set  me  the 
task  of  writing.  I  am  free  to  go  to  Lake  Superior.  Then  why  do  I 
persist?  I  answer,  interest  in  the  result.  I  may  see  the  necessity  of 
formulating  properly  certain  conclusions  for  my  classes  next  year,  or 
I  may  be  eager  to  measure  my  strength,  to  see  what  I  can  do.  I  may 
be  pleasantly  dreaming  of  the  converts  to  my  doctrines,  or  of  the 
money  that  will  seek  my  coflfers.  Any  of  these  may  be  possible  ideas 
that  have  become  fixed  in  my  consciousness.  It  is  the  imagined  end, 
possibly  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  but  nevertheless  pleasing  and  soul-consum- 
ing, that  is  impelling  me  on.  While  the  phantom  is  bright  I  forget 
the  petty  annoyances  of  heat,  moisty  hands,  crying  children,  rumbUng 
wagons,  clouds  of  heated  dust,  etc.  I  am  living  in  the  result.  I  am 
interested. 

Instincts  and  Interests. — Interests  are  primarily  a  function 
of  instincts.  Secondarily,  they  are  determined  by  environ- 
ment and  education.  Of  course  interest  in  a  particular  object 
is  not  determined  by  instinct;  but  the  type  of  interest  is  de- 
termined in  broad  outlines  by  instinct  and  heredity.  The 
hound  is  interested  in  the  chase,  the  lion  in  stalking  its  prey, 
and  the  cat  in  stealthily  creeping  upon  its  victim.  The  boy 
is  naturally  interested  in  warlike,  savage  plays,  the  girl  in 
dandling  her  dolls,  the  mother  in  sacrifice  for  her  infant  child. 
The  child's  dominant  interests  are  selfish.  With  the  ap- 
proach of  manhood  sex-interests,  home-making,  and  the  re- 
ligious interests  make  their  appearance.  As  instincts  have 
their  periods  of  nascency,  full  bloom,  and  decay,  likewise  in- 
terests growing  out  of  the  corresponding  instincts  have  their 
periods  of  birth,  growth,  and  decay.  The  presence  of  deep, 
abiding,  general  interests  indicates  the  possession  of  corre- 
sponding instincts.  Conversely,  the  absence  of  a  given  type 
of  interest  signifies  the  absence  of  concomitant  instincts.  No 
one  ever  possesses  a  genuine  interest  in  any  line  of  action 
without  native  power  in  that  direction.  Persons  devoid  of 
musical  ability  never  voluntarily  manifest  a  persistent  inter- 
est in  producing  music.  They  may  enjoy  hearing  others  per- 
form, but  their  interest  will  be  too  feeble  to  impel  them  to 
actual  participation.     Those  without  athletic  ability  (poten- 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  i6i 

tiality,  instinct)  never  are  deeply  enough  interested  to  partici- 
pate to  any  extent.  Those  who  sit  on  the  bleachers  and  yell 
themselves  hoarse  are  not  necessarily  interested  in  athletics. 
They  are  more  likely  to  be  interested  in  the  sport  because  of 
a  sort  of  gambler's  interest,  or  because  of  interest  in  the  in- 
stitution represented.  Genuine  interest  in  anything  impels 
one  to  active  participation  in  it. 

The  foregoing  facts  have  an  important  bearing  upon  teach- 
ing. The  boy  who  is  not  interested  in  his  mathematics  and, 
though  diligent,  cannot  become  interested,  probably  has  no 
instinct — no  ability  for  it.  The  one  who  is  slow  to  develop 
an  interest  in  languages,  in  music,  or  in  drawing,  presumably 
is  deficient  in  power,  ability — instinct — in  those  particular 
directions.  Lack  of  interest  and  corresponding  ability  at  any 
particular  period  do  not  necessarily  mean  permanent  lack  in 
the  given  direction.  Oftentimes  a  power  is  dormant,  the 
nascent  period  has  not  appeared.  Unfortunately,  sometimes 
it  may  mean  that  a  nascent  period  has  passed  without  proper 
stimulation.  Frequently  when  the  child  is  not  interested  in 
his  arithmetic,  he  has  not  arrived  at  the  period  when  arith- 
metical thinking  is  sufficiently  developed.  Successful  accom- 
plishment is  necessary  to  the  continuance  of  interest.  The 
child,  as  well  as  the  adult,  who  continually  fails  through  in- 
ability soon  displays  distaste  for  that  particular  activity.  At 
a  later  time,  when  association  fibres  have  matured,  relational 
thinking  can  be  engaged  in,  and  abstract  mathematical  think- 
ing may  be  a  delight.  The  fundamental  cause  of  shifting 
interests  is  the  fact  of  changing  powers — instincts — through 
processes  of  development.  To  be  sure,  lack  of  interest  may 
not  be  due  to  lack  of  abihty,  but  no  other  cause  is  so  largely 
responsible.  Consequently  any  lack  of  interest  should  excite 
suspicion  and  cause  investigation  to  determine  whether  there 
is  a  deficiency  of  native  power  in  the  given  direction  or  a  de- 
fect in  the  means  or  manner  of  approach  to  the  activity. 

Children's  Egoism. — The  child's  early  instincts  are  selfish. 
He  cares  for  naught  except  his  own  egoistic  pleasures.  They 
are  not  mere  animal  pleasures,   as  of  eating  and  drinking. 


i62         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

Most  of  his  egoistic  pleasures  are  psychical  and  of  a  high  order. 
His  delight  and  satisfaction  in  mental  accomplishments  are 
attested  in  an  infinitude  of  ways,  from  the  repetition  of  strik- 
ing a  table  with  a  spoon  to  hear  the  sound  up  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  intricate  language  co-ordinations,  making  collections, 
and  amassing  funds  of  information  just  for  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  and  discovering. 

The  child's  egoistic  nature  makes  him  easily  interested  in 
competition  with  his  fellows.  This  is  perfectly  healthy  and, 
in  no  wise  dangerous  unless  carried  to  extremes.  By  degrees 
the  child  may  become  interested  in  doing  things  from  more 
altruistic  motives.  The  desire  to  please  his  teacher  or  parents 
and  to  stand  well  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows  plays  a  very  im- 
portant role  in  keeping  the  child  industrious  at  proper  ac- 
tivities. 

The  child  whose  parents  are  interested  in  his  accomplish- 
ments has  a  much  greater  incentive  to  work  than  the  one 
whose  parents  are  indifferent  to  his  childish  activities.  Sym- 
pathetic interest  by  the  parent  in  hearing  of  the  child's  prog- 
ress in  reading,  in  praising  his  writing  or  his  drawing,  exer- 
cise very  important  influences.  Honest  praise  is  very  desir- 
able in  helping  to  maintain  interest.  Nobody,  least  of  all  a 
child,  wishes  to  do  tasks  unnoticed.  He  is  naturally  inter- 
ested in  winning  favor,  place,  or  other  rewards.  Then  there 
is  a  negative  factor  which  stimulates  and  may  even  heighten 
interest — namely,  the  fear  of  loss  of  position,  loss  of  caste, 
degradation,  or  even  punishment. 

Growth  of  Altruism. — Lastly  come  the  altruistic  interests 
in  which  others  form  the  centre  of  consideration.  Although 
germs  of  these  interests  appear  early,  it  is  only  with  approach- 
ing adult  life  that  egoistic  interests  are  subordinated  to  altru- 
istic ones.  In  many,  even  the  majority,  they  never  become 
very  strong.  The  evolution  of  the  teacher  or  minister  illus- 
trates the  characteristic  development  of  interests  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher.  Work  and  study  are  at  first  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  self-improvement,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  a  certificate  or  license.     This  certificate  is  desired  be- 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  163 

cause  it  will  bring  personal  reward  in  the  way  of  position  and 
pecuniary  remuneration.  Later  the  work  is  pursued  for  the 
sake  of  the  pupils  or  the  pastoral  flock,  and  later  still  for  the 
sake  of  humanity  in  general.  Finally  the  deepest  religious 
interest  comes  to  full  force.  This  is  the  highest  altruistic 
interest.  True  religious  interest  concerns  itself  with  the  high- 
est welfare  of  others  as  well  as  of  self.  And  it  is  ever  the  ideal, 
largely  unrealized,  which  forms  the  motivating  interest. 

We  should  not  expect  the  young  child  to  be  especially  altru- 
istic. If  he  is,  there  is  something  abnormal  about  him.  Of 
course  his  egoism  often  makes  it  uncomfortable  for  his  seniors, 
but  he  is  simply  passing  through  a  stage  which  he  will  soon 
outgrow.  With  the  oncoming  of  adolescence  the  budding  of 
altruism  ought  to  become  thoroughly  apparent.  This  is  the 
time  for  ministration  to  such  impulses  if  ever  they  are  to  be 
developed. 

The  Child's  Interest  in  the  Concrete  and  Objective. — The 
child  is  interested  in  w^hat  stimulates  his  senses.  He  is  at- 
tracted by  what  he  sees,  hears,  touches;  not  for  what  the 
stimuli  signify,  but  out  of  pure  sense-gratification.  Watch 
the  babe  follow  a  light,  turn  toward  sounds,  express  gratifica- 
tion at  tactile  contact  with  things.  External  objects  and 
parts  of  his  own  body  are  handled,  just  for  the  pleasure  of 
touching.  What  is  bright-colored,  full  of  motion  or  sound 
will  attract.  As  his  attention  becomes  directed  toward  and 
centred  upon  things  by  these  means,  he  gradually  learns 
about  things,  and  then  apperceptively  he  becomes  interested 
in  new  things  which  bear  a  relationship  to  what  he  has  already 
understood.  At  this  early  stage  it  is  necessary  to  make  things 
attractive  to  the  senses.  Bright-colored  pictures,  various 
colored  letters,  pleasing  tones,  rhythmical  jingles,  exercises 
full  of  motion  and  muscular  activity,  as  motion  songs,  doing 
things,  and  making  things,  must  be  brought  Into  requisition. 
The  child  mind  deals  with  the  concrete,  and  any  education 
that  attempts  to  foist  abstractions  instead  produces  but  a 
veneering  which  is  sure  to  scale  off. 

As  much   time   as  possible  in   the  schoolroom   should    be 


1 64    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

occupied  in  doing — ''learning  by  doing."  It  not  only  fosters 
interest  but  actually  renders  knowledge  more  clear  and  defi- 
nite. In  arithmetic  much  objective  and  constructive  work 
can  be  brought  into  requisition.  In  denominate  numbers 
every  measure  should  be  handled.  The  pupil  can  measure 
the  schoolroom,  the  wood-pile,  the  coal-bin,  or  the  water- 
pail.  All  the  problems  should  be  experienced,  at  least  until 
understood,  before  attempting  a  solution.  For  example,  here 
is  a  post  whose  height  is  known,  and  the  length  of  a  building 
or  height  of  a  tree  is  desired.  Have  the  shadows  measured 
or  the  triangles  actually  constructed  until  all  conditions  are 
fully  grasped.  A  half -hour  spent  out  in  the  yard  making 
measurements  and  getting  all  the  conditions,  instead  of  hours 
of  aimless  frittering  with  the  symbolism  of  arithmetic  inop- 
portunely introduced,  will  make  the  task  pleasant  and  profit- 
able. 

It  is  easy  to  enlist  the  interest  of  children  in  nature  about 
them.  Here,  as  in  all  cases,  apperception  is  the  basis.  The 
farmer  boy  often  goes  through  life  seeing  little  of  the  wonder- 
ful things  about  him,  simply  because  he  has  never  been  taught 
to  see.  Teach  him  that  geological  forces  and  botanical  proc- 
esses have  a  relation  to  all  life  about  him  and  a  new  world  is 
opened  up.  Give  country  children  a  few  of  the  obvious  facts 
concerning  plant  life,  growth,  circulation  of  sap,  fertilization 
of  flowers,  relation  of  bacterial  life  to  plant  growth,  something 
concerning  food  ingredients  in  soil,  rain,  and  air,  the  action 
of  light  on  plant  growth,  some  of  the  easy  principles  of  horti- 
culture, and  fertilization,  tactfully  dispel  some  of  the  many 
superstitions  and  saws  relating  to  life  and  growth,  and  they 
become  new  creatures;  their  eyes  will  be  opened,  they  will  be 
born  again.  Such  procedure  will  lead  them  easily  to  the  peru- 
sal of  books  like  Darwin's  study  of  vegetable  mould  and  of 
earthworms,  of  his  Origin  of  Species — into  science.  The  first 
geological  interest  I  ever  acquired  came  through  chance  read- 
ing about  the  action  of  frost  upon  ground  ploughed  in  the  fall. 
My  interest  was  immediate.  I  wanted  to  know  what  would 
give  better  crops.     The  interest  kindled  has  not  died  out. 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  165 

The  introduction  of  the  study  of  elementary  agriculture  Into 
the  country  schools  would  give  a  new  worth  to  country-school 
instruction. 

Interest  in  Utility. — "What  use  can  be  made  of  this?"  Is 
one  of  the  common  questions  asked  by  children.  It  Is  not  an 
idle  question  with  them.  It  represents  a  deep-seated  inter- 
est. I  have  noticed  children  very  apathetic  over  lessons  on 
coal,  iron,  and  other  minerals,  as  long  as  the  emphasis  was  put 
upon  classification  and  other,  to  them,  abstract  considera- 
tions. But  as  soon  as  the  idea  of  its  utility  in  the  economy 
of  civilization  was  introduced  they  were  all  aglow  with  en- 
thusiasm. They  care  little  for  classification  and  scientific 
principles.  They  have  not  reached  the  age  for  that,  but 
"What  is  it  for?  How  is  It  used  ?  How  does  It  affect  them  ? " 
are  all  vital  considerations.  In  this  instinct  lies  a  very  strong 
leverage  for  securing  efficient  work.  A  boy  who  hates  arith- 
metic but  likes  machinery  can  easily  be  led  to  see  that  mathe- 
matics Is  the  key  to  its  understanding  and  construction.  After 
early  childhood,  interests  are  very  largely  incited  in  this 
fashion.  The  boy  learns  his  lessons  because  by  so  doing  he 
can  gain  favor,  rank,  prestige;  because  they  will  enable  him 
to  accomplish  something  else.  His  reading,  he  comes  to  be- 
lieve, will  reveal  entertaining  stories;  through  writing  he  may 
communicate  with  his  chums  and  his  arithmetic  will  enable 
him  to  make  things. 

Children's  own  stories  and  spontaneous  drawings  are  full 
of  ideas  of  action,  and  especially  actions  related  to  use.  Binet 
records  {Revue  Philosophique,  December,  1890)  the  results  of 
some  tests  made  upon  his  two  little  girls,  2}^  and  4^2  years 
old.  He  asked  them  what  they  meant  by  a  number  of  words 
they  used,  such  as  horse  and  clock,  and  wrote  down  their 
answers.  Their  answers  indicated  that  they  were  most  in- 
terested in  the  use,  and  next  in  order  came  the  movements. 
They  seldom  described  things  by  color,  form,  or  size,  but  told 
what  it  could  do  or  for  what  it  was  used.  Barnes  tried  essen- 
tially the  same  experiment  with  more  than  a  thousand  chil- 
dren, and  found  that  their  definitions  were  in  the  following 


1 66    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

order:  By  far  the  larger  number  from  6  to  12  years  explained 
in  terms  of  use.  Next  in  order  came  definitions  by  placing 
under  a  more  generic  term,  as:  *'A  dog  is  an  animal."  Third 
in  order  was  action;  fourth,  quality;  fifth,  place;  sixth,  color; 
seventh,  form;  eighth,  structure;  ninth,  substance.  With  in- 
creasing age  the  tendency  to  explain  in  other  terms  than  use 
increased.  At  all  ages  up  to  15  use  was  very  strong  in  all 
their  explanations.  Barnes  says  that  children  of  7  "consider 
that  they  have  told  you  all  about  an  object  when  they  tell 
you  what  it  is  for.  'A  horse  is  to  ride,'  *A  mama  is  to  take 
care  of  children,  and  a  box  is  to  put  things  in.'  To  the  young 
child  all  things  exist  to  meet  some  of  his  own  particular  wants; 
thus,  'A  village  is  to  buy  candy  in';  'A  bird  is  to  make  meat 
with,  or  is  good  to  lay  little  eggs';  'A  dog  is  good  to  catch 
flies';  'A  mama  is  good  to  cook,  or  to  whip  little  children.'" 
{Studies  in  Education,  I,  p.  207.  See  also  p.  227.) 
An  illustration  borrowed  from  Adams  is  to  the  point: 

John  was  a  perfectly  normal  type — clever  and  very  careless.  Sud- 
denly the  mathematical  master  reported  an  amazing  improvement  in 
John's  marks.  On  investigation  the  improvement  was  found  to 
limit  itself  to  mensuration.  Still  further  inquiry  narrowed  down  the 
prodigy  to  segments  of  circles;  but  as  those  could  not  be  understood 
without  previous  work,  John  asked  and  obtained  permission  to  work 
from  the  beginning.  In  three  weeks  he  had  bored  his  way  honestly 
through  half  of  Todhunter's  Mensuration,  and  was  very  eager  to  be 
promoted  to  the  volumes  of  spheres.  John  was  now  the  talk  of  the 
master's  room,  where  nobody  had  a  good  word  to  say  for  him  except 
the  science  master,  who  reported  that  John  had  developed  a  violent 
interest  in  chemistry,  and  was  showing  leanings  toward  volumetric 
analysis.  The  whole  trouble  was  afterward  traced  to  its  primary 
bacillus  in  a  gigantic  balloon  that  John  was  projecting.  How  to  cut 
the  gores  drove  him  to  Todhunter;  how  to  calculate  how  much  zinc 
and  sulphuric  acid  were  necessary  to  float  his  balloon  with  hydrogen 
had  urged  him  to  chemistry.  Balloon-making  did  not  make  mensura- 
tion or  chemistry  easy;  it  made  them  interesting.  {Herhartian  Psy- 
chology Applied  to  Education,  p.  264.) 

A  business  man  desires  to  accomplish  certain  ends;  it  may 
be  the  selling  of  sewing-machines  in  Europe,  but  a  lack  of 


^MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  167 

knowledge  of  the  languages  stands  in  the  way.  He  sets  him- 
self assiduously  to  mastering  those  languages.  At  first  the 
interest  is  not  primarily  in  the  German,  the  French,  or  the 
Scandinavian;  it  is  avowedly  in  selling  sewing-machines,  but 
once  they  are  learned,  undoubtedly  an  interest  is  built  up  in 
the  languages  for  their  own  sakes.  Much  in  the  same  way 
one  goes  to  college.  A  college  education  is  a  necessary  quali- 
fication for  our  ideal  society,  business,  entertainment;  it  will 
furnish  us  our  passport  through  many  desired  portals.  These 
are  utilitarian  motives,  but  probably  no  study  is  voluntarily 
taken  without  some  such  motive.  It  could  not  be  otherwise. 
Lack  of  apperceptive  ideas  prohibits  us  from  being  interested 
in  a  subject  of  which  we  know  nothing.  After  all,  are  not 
these  higher  motives  than  taking  subjects  simply  because  one 
is  assigned  them  by  a  taskmaster  or  because  they  are  in  a 
required  curriculum  ? 

Motivation  Through  Results. — While  every  one  gets  some 
exhilaration  from  exercise,  it  is  results  that  motivate.  The 
great  mainspring  to  action  in  all  orders  of  life  is  interest  in 
achievement — in  results.  We  must  not  be  led  to  believe  that 
school  children  will  accept  cheerfully  all  assigned  tasks  be- 
cause of  an  inevitable  interest  in  action — in  processes.  It  is 
only  when  we  cause  them  to  feel  a  worth  in  the  result  that  we 
secure  genuine  and  continuous  interest.  School  activities  are 
frequently  too  far  removed  from  reality.  Children  like  to  do 
and  accomplish  real  work.  A  boy  in  a  kindergarten  said:  "I 
don't  want  to  play  drive  nails.  I  want  to  drive  some  real 
nails  with  a  real  hammer!"  Too  much  occupation  for  chil- 
dren is  playing  at  driving  nails.  Every  one  is  more  inter- 
ested in  results  than  in  processes  of  securing  results.  The 
processes  are  only  means  to  ends.  All  nature  has  been  inter- 
ested in  securing  results.  Educational  theory,  however,  has 
often  erroneously  conceived  educational  values  to  lie  in  the 
processes.  It  is  said  that  the  process  of  learning  the  arithme- 
tic, the  algebra,  or  the  Latin  are  the  important  things;  the 
resulting  knowledge  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  Latin  are  in- 
consequential,  compared   with   the   value   of   the   processes. 


1 68    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Learning,  therefore,  is  often  a  purely  formal  affair.  In  the 
chapter  on  formal  discipline  this  theory  is  critically  examined 
and  shown  to  be  untenable.  Even  in  manual  training  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  exalt  the  value  of  the  process  and 
to  minimize  the  value  of  products.  A  little  observation  of 
pupils  engaged  in  manual  training  should  show  that  the  child 
is  primarily  interested  in  the  product.  The  sled,  the  box, 
the  Christmas  present  he  is  constructing  make  the  process 
worth  while.  Let  him  be  asked  to  go  through  purely  formal 
"exercises"  without  making  anything,  and  note  the  dwindling 
interest. 

Can  we  not  regenerate  all  our  subjects  of  instruction  by 
putting  real,  worthful  results  into  the  foreground?  Pupils 
should  write  real  letters,  work  concrete  real  problems  growing 
out  of  spontaneous  activities,  study  problems  in  civics  con- 
nected with  everyday  life,  make  geography,  like  charity, 
begin  at  home,  read  to  know,  recite  to  give  information.  In 
all  teaching  have  the  work  spring  out  of  the  demands  of  life 
and  be  made  to  contribute  to  them.  The  boy  who  regards 
algebra  and  Latin  as  mysteries  evolved  merely  for  schoolboy 
occupation  is  never  interested;  but  the  boy  who  glimpses  that 
algebra  will  unlock  hidden  secrets  in  electricity  or  that  Latin 
may  contribute  to  his  efficiency  as  a  lawyer  will  glow  with 
enthusiasm  over  the  results  and  is  willing  to  master  the 
processes. 

Interest  Through  Experience. — It  often  happens  that  pupils 
are  not  interested  in  a  subject  when  it  is  first  begun,  but  after 
they  have  pursued  it  for  a  time  it  becomes  pleasurable  to 
them.  This  is  to  be  expected.  We  are  really  interested  only 
in  those  things  about  which  we  know  something.  Interest  is 
cumulative.  The  more  we  know,  the  deeper  usually  becomes 
our  interest.  As  soon  as  one's  knowledge  becomes  a  part  of 
one's  mental  system;  when  all  activities  of  life  are  fitted  into 
this  system;  when  one  begins  to  shape  all  thoughts,  feelings, 
and  actions  by  this  knowledge;  then  one  may  be  said  to  be 
really  interested.  The  business  man  who  sees  stocks  in  every- 
thing, the  doctor  who  constantly  discovers  cases  to  support 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  169 

his  medical  theories,  the  sociologist  who  discerns  a  sign  of  a 
great  social  movement  In  every  Individuars  act,  is  really 
Interested.  I  say  to  my  students:  "You  will  not  be  good 
teachers  until  your  days  and  nights,  your  waking  hours  and 
your  dreams  are  filled  with  thoughts  of  your  work,  and  you 
are  possessed  with  a  burning  desire  to  better  your  work,  until 
you  have  thought  about  it  enough  to  make  It  the  great  pas- 
sion of  your  life — completely  living  that  life  which  you  have 
elected  as  an  ideal."  No  one  ever  arrives  at  that  stage  of 
burning  zeal  and  enthusiasm  without  first  having  studied 
long  and  deeply. 

The  subject-matter  must  be  adapted  to  the  age,  capacities, 
and  apperceptive  insight  of  the  child.  Even  In  the  university 
the  same  principle  should  be  observed.  Where  entire  freedom 
of  choice  obtains,  the  student  is  as  liable  to  elect  teachers  as 
subjects,  and  often  selects  subjects  for  which  he  has  no  proper 
preparation.  Every  elective  should  have  certain  prerequisites 
for  Its  pursuit.  We  want  the  subject  to  take  a  vital  hold  upon 
the  individual;  he  should  form  desires  to  pursue  it;  it  should 
become  a  part  of  him,  so  that  It  Influences  conduct.  The 
arithmetic  that  is  never  applied  in  daily  life  spontaneously 
by  the  pupil  is  of  little  account;  the  history  that  is  never 
drawn  upon  to  measure  present  human  conduct  has  not 
borne  proper  fruit. 

If  a  child  does  not  become  readily  interested  in  a  given 
lesson,  It  is  better  to  seek  something  else.  If  he  has  sufficient 
apperception  for  the  given  lesson,  his  readiness  to  be  influ- 
enced by  suggestion  will  easily  develop  the  proper  attitude. 
Spencer  says:  "This  need  for  perpetual  telling  Is  the  result 
of  our  stupidity,  not  of  the  child's.  We  drag  It  away  from 
the  facts  in  which  it  Is  Interested,  and  which  it  Is  actively 
assimilating  of  itself;  we  put  before  It  facts  far  too  complex 
for  it  to  understand,  and  therefore  distasteful  to  It."  TSpen- 
cer.  Education,  p.  126.) 

It  Is  of  great  importance  that  the  child  should  form  inter- 
ests through  the  subject-matter  of  instruction  which  may  de- 
velop Into  permanent  life  interests.     In  this  view  the  char- 


I70    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

acter  of  the  subject-matter  of  instruction  becomes  of  the  high- 
est importance.  Purely  formal  instruction  in  subjects  that 
do  not  touch  Hfe  cannot  develop  proper  interests  in  life.  For- 
mal rules  of  language,  grammar,  or  arithmetic  cannot  teach 
the  golden  rule.  Hence  the  value  of  literature,  history,  and 
other  humanistic  studies.  Interest  should  remain  a  perma- 
nent and  abiding  attitude  even  after  the  particular  knowledge 
has  been  obliterated  from  the  mind. 

Interest  Through  Imitation. — Imitation  and  suggestion  are 
very  potent  means  of  securing  interest  among  children.  They 
instinctively  exhibit  first  curiosity  and  then  genuine  delight 
in  what  interests  their  mates.  They  are  also  responsive  to 
bursts  of  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  those  whom  they  respect 
and  admire.  Parents  and  teachers  who  cannot  warm  up  over 
the  activities  that  appeal  to  child  life  are  lacking  in  very 
essential  qualities  of  child  leadership.  One  of  the  highest 
compliments  that  can  be  paid  a  teacher  is  that  he  seems  like 
a  student  in  his  eagerness.  Leadership  is  more  to  be  desired 
than  poUcemanship  or  taskmastership.  "Teaching  is  really 
a  matter  of  contagion  rather  than  instruction.  His  (the 
child's)  leader  must  therefore  be  a  person  of  character  and 
self-control.  He  loves  his  leader  and  wants  to  do  for  him. 
His  leader  must  be  a  person  of  ideals  who  can  offer  him  good 
and  true  things  to  do."  (Forbush,  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
7  :34i.)  It  is  necessary  to  distinguish  carefully  between 
genuine  interests  and  spurious  ones  engendered  through  imi- 
tation. Often  pupils  think  they  are  interested  in  a  subject 
simply  because  their  acquaintances  have  the  same  attitude 
toward  the  subject.  True  interest  can  only  develop  through 
knowledge.  Consequently  it  is  only  after  the  pupil  has  given 
a  subject  a  fair  trial  that  we  may  know  whether  or  not  he  is 
interested. 

Spontaneity. — We  should  seek  to  have  the  child  act  spon- 
taneously as  far  as  possible.  This  does  not  preclude  influ- 
encing him  by  suggestion  and  guidance  toward  a  desirable 
line  of  action.  But  the  child  should  desire  to  reach  certain 
ends  or  conquer  difficulties  for  himself.     When  the  child's 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  171 

self-activity  carries  him  forward,  it  is  astonishing  what  results 
may  be  accomplished.  They  are  incomparable  with  those 
obtained  through  doing  prescribed  tasks.  "The  spontaneous 
activity  to  which  children  are  thus  prone  is  simply  the  pursuit 
of  those  pleasures  which  the  healthful  exercise  of  the  faculties 
gives.  .  .  .  Children  should  be  led  to  make  their  own  inves- 
tigations and  to  draw  their  own  inferences.  They  should  be 
told  as  little  as  possible,  and  induced  to  discover  as  much  as 
possible."     (Spencer,  op.  cit,,  pp.  124,  127.) 

There  are  thousands  of  ways  in  which  their  interests  may 
be  aroused  in  discovering  things  for  themselves  and  accom- 
plishing results  unaided.  Normal,  active  children  will  even 
resent  help.  They  say:  "I  want  to  do  that  myself."  They 
prove  this  when  building  with  their  blocks,  when  playing  their 
games,  in  the  various  manual  activities,  and  sometimes  even 
in  the  school  arts.  Who  has  not  seen  children  delighted  at 
discovering  analogies  in  forms  of  objects  and  in  the  use  of 
things  ?  Discovering  the  spelling  and  pronunciation  of  words, 
for  example,  may  be  made  a  most  delightful  exercise.  The 
study  of  plant  and  animal  life  affords  great  opportunities  for 
the  independent  discovery  of  analogies.  The  child  is  essen- 
tially an  analogical  reasoner.  There  is  ample  opportunity  in 
all  subjects  to  have  pupils  work  out  independent  conclusions. 
Even  in  history,  which  is  so  often  memorized  in  a  purely 
mechanical  manner,  questions  may  be  propounded  which 
invite  independent  judgment.  For  example,  have  the  class 
answer  such  questions  as  the  following:  Should  Gates  have 
been  commander-in-chief?  Should  Fitz-John  Porter  have 
been  court-martialed  ?  Was  Hayes  elected  President  ?  Was 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana  unconstitutional  ?  Was  the  pur- 
chase of  Alaska  advantageous?  Was  the  Cuban  War  justi- 
fiable? A  similar  procedure  in  literature  would  infuse  new 
life  into  what  is  often  dry  and  uninteresting. 

Importance  of  Responsibility. — A  definite  aim  should  be  in- 
culcated very  early  in  the  child's  mind.  This  aim  may  and 
should  undergo  metamorphosis  with  added  experience.  The 
boy's  aim  should  be  more  immediate  than  his  father's,  to  be 


172    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

sure,  but  an  aim  he  should  have  and  that  should  be  tena- 
ciously striven  for.  No  child  should  grow  up  irresponsible. 
Responsibility  promotes  interest  and  gives  zest  to  life.  The 
main  differences  between  country  and  city  bred  children  do 
not  result  because  of  differing  amounts  of  ozone  which  they 
have  inspired,  but  because  of  the  more  permanent  interest  in 
tasks  and  the  greater  fidelity  to  responsibilities  placed  upon 
the  country  children.  That  is  one  potent  reason  why  so 
many  great  men  have  been  reared  on  the  farm.  Because  of 
the  relief  from  all  continuous  tasks  and  from  all  responsibili- 
ties, the  city  boy  often  does  not  learn  to  be  interested  in  per- 
forming duties.  He  is  apt  to  be  interested  in  the  things  of 
the  moment,  those  which  compel  attention,  those  which  are 
entertaining  or  amusing.  The  country  boy  is  early  habitu- 
ated to  perform  tasks  because  they  are  duties.  Work  must 
be  done,  some  one  must  perform  it.  His  father  works  steadily. 
The  hay  must  be  cut,  or  spoil;  the  stock  must  be  fed,  or  go 
hungry;  the  fence  must  be  mended,  or  danger  will  result  to 
the  crops;  wood  must  be  cut  and  brought  in,  or  dinner  will  be 
late.  He  hears  every  one  say  must,  and  through  habituation 
to  work  and  reflection  upon  consequences,  he,  too,  learns  to 
say  that  ''this  and  that  must  be  done,  and  they  seem  to  fall 
to  me;  I  must  do  them." 

The  city  child  unfortunately  misses  all  this.  He  seldom 
feels  the  impelHng  "I  must,"  except  "I  must  get  my  lessons, 
or  get  punished."  But  he  is  seldom  taught  to  be  on  the  look- 
out for  work.  The  assigned  lesson  over,  he  casts  himself 
adrift,  oftentimes  to  be  caught  in  currents  that  lead  to  mis- 
chief. The  country  child  has  few  playmates  and  few  play- 
things; the  city  child  has  so  many  that  he  is  surfeited  with 
them  and  ceases  to  be  interested  in  them.  Compare  the  boy 
who  makes  a  sled  with  one  who  has  his  sled  and  all  other  toys 
bought  for  him.  The  one  is  interested  in  achieving  an  end, 
the  other  is  merely  temporarily  amused.  Compare  the  boy 
who  makes  a  collection  of  eggs  with  the  one  who  merely  goes 
to  the  museum.  The  one  who  collects  will  have  deeper, 
healthier  interests  than  the  one  who  can  go  at  any  time,  but 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  173 

who  has  never  attempted  to  make  a  miniature  museum.  The 
girl  who  has  some  part  in  making  her  own  dolls  secures  a 
satisfaction  that  is  unapproachable  by  the  poor  rich  child  who 
is  merely  a  spectator.  The  pleasure  of  being  a  spectator  in 
these  directions  is  almost  as  proportionally  undesirable  as 
being  a  spectator  instead  of  a  participant  in  a  feast. 

On  the  farm  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  promote  interests 
in  a  variety  of  directions.  With  little  suggestion  the  child 
can  be  made  to  have  a  deep  interest  in  animals  and  plants. 
One  of  the  surest  ways  to  launch  these  interests  is  to  make 
the  child  a  copartner,  a  profit-sharer.  Had  farmers  any  ped- 
agogical tact,  there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  keeping  boys 
on  the  farm.  Could  certain  patches  of  ground  be  set  apart 
for  the  boys'  own  use,  could  certain  animals  be  given  them  to 
care  for  and  to  own,  they  would  not  only  be  interested  in 
those  projects  but  they  would  become  identified  with  the  in- 
terests of  the  whole  farm.  There,  as  in  every  walk  of  life,  no 
one  wants  to  be  merely  a  spectator.  Of  course  the  social 
question  enters  here,  but  the  same  rule  should  apply  there. 
Make  the  young  people  copartners  in  working  out  better 
social  relations.  Prescription  without  co-operation  is  fatal 
here  as  elsewhere.  No  greater  enthusiasm  has  ever  been  kin- 
dled in  my  own  life  than  in  the  co-operative  attempts  at  evolv- 
ing a  country  lyceum,  and  in  the  attempt  to  work  out  with 
my  father  better  methods  of  raising  certain  crops. 

One  of  the  gravest  mistakes  in  the  present-day  education 
from  the  kindergarten  through  the  university  is  the  failure  to 
impress  thoroughly  the  duty  of  individual  responsibility.  It 
has  come  about  largely  through  a  misinterpretation  of  the 
doctrine  of  interest  and  the  belief  that  the  child  develops  a 
better  type  of  will  when  freed  from  restraint.  Freedom  from 
restraint  has  come  to  mean  absolvence  from  duties  and  from 
training.  On  every  hand  the  doctrine  is  spread  that  we 
ought  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  child's  interest.  This  is  good 
pedagogy  when  we  follow  a  child's  interest  which  has  come 
about  through  a  healthy  and  normal  development.  But 
there  are  many  perverted  and  unhealthful  interests.     It  is 


174    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

manifestly  wrong  to  accede  to  the  child's  wishes  in  such  cases, 
simply  because  he  is  interested.  Moreover,  many  apparent 
interests  are  mere  passing  whims.  It  is  as  important  that  the 
parent  and  teacher  create  interest  as  that  they  permit  chil- 
dren to  follow  their  own  interests.  They  should  instil  into 
the  minds  of  children  that  it  is  a  duty  incumbent  on  them  to 
be  interested  in  right,  important,  and  uplifting  things. 

Co-operation  of  parents  with  teachers  is  one  of  the  surest 
means  of  producing  genuine  interest  in  school  work.  The 
parent  who  does  not  know  what  his  children  are  doing  every 
day  in  school  must  not  be  surprised  if  some  day  the  child 
plays  truant  or  becomes  apathetic  toward  his  studies.  I  have 
known  few  cases  where  parents  were  intelligently  interested 
in  the  child's  progress  in  which  the  child  himself  was  not  like- 
wise interested.  Many  fathers  are  too  absorbed  in  their 
banks,  their  merchandise,  their  railroad,  to  know  anything 
about  their  children.  They  scarcely  ever  see  them  by  day- 
light and  never  have  time  to  talk  with  them  and  really  know 
what  they  are  doing.  One-half  the  interest  and  concern  that 
many  a  father  accords  to  his  trotting-horse,  his  yacht,  his 
automobile,  his  favorite  baseball  team,  accorded  to  an  identi- 
fication of  interests  with  his  children  would  work  wonders  in 
child-saving.  No  wonder  that  the  indictment  is  sometimes 
made  that  many  men  are  successful  in  all  kinds  of  business 
except  rearing  boys  and  girls  properly. 

Interest  in  Self-Improvement. — Boys  ought  to  be  taught  to 
be  as  absorbed  and  interested  in  their  school  work  as  they 
would  be  if  working  for  wages  and  trying  to  capture  a  bank 
presidency.  School  work  is  apt  to  be  done  as  prescribed  tasks 
which  it  is  deemed  honorable  to  shirk  if  possible.  Parents 
should  take  the  same  pains  to  have  children  please  others  and 
to  succeed  in  school  as  if  in  a  mercantile  establishment.  A 
false  code  of  school  ethics  has  sprung  up.  Children  should  be 
taught  to  do  with  all  their  mind  and  will  and  strength  what- 
ever seems  right  to  do.  Pitch  in  and  interest  follows.  No 
one  will  ever  get  up  a  white  heat  of  interest  by  waiting  for 
interest  to  come  before  beginning  a  task.     Assume  the  atti- 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  175 

tude  of  interest  and  interest  will  follow,  is  the  Lange-James 
law  of  emotion. 

Is  not  irresponsibility  manifest  in  all  grades  of  school  ?  Is 
it  not  manifest  in  the  university?  And  is  it  not  discernible 
in  the  home?  The  child  goes  to  school  and  performs  his 
school  tasks  because  he  is  entertained,  and  as  soon  as  the 
teacher  fails  as  an  entertainer  the  child  says  mentally  that 
because  the  teacher  is  not  interesting  he  is  not  obliged  to  be 
attentive.  His  assigned  work  over,  he  is  in  mischief.  He 
has  not  been  taught  to  set  himself  to  work.  In  the  high 
schools  and  colleges  the  youth  often  puts  himself  in  a  contest 
with  the  teacher,  saying:  ''Now  if  you  entertain  me,  I'll  keep 
awake  and  I'll  attend  your  classes.  If  not,  I'll  bring  dis- 
credit upon  you  by  going  to  sleep,  or  I'll  elect  a  course  some- 
where else."  The  student  who  does  not  maintain  an  interest 
by  his  own  initiative  ought  not  to  be  in  class.  The  adult 
who  goes  to  sleep  during  a  lecture  or  in  church  is  in  the  kin- 
dergarten stage  and  ought  to  be  in  the  kindergarten.  His 
presence  ought  to  be  evidence  that  he  is  to  co-operate.  Duty 
is  not  taught  best  through  preaching.  The  habit  of  attend- 
ing to  regularly  recurring  work  is  what  teaches  duty,  just  as 
the  habit  of  being  polite  teaches  one  to  be  polite. 

Pupils  are  virtually  taught  that  they  are  absolved  from  all 
personal  responsibility  and  are  to  look  to  the  teacher  to  create 
all  interest.  This  is  a  pernicious  doctrine.  I  have  watched 
the  career  of  several  boys  who  have  grown  up  with  this  idea 
firmly  implanted  in  their  minds.  To  all  advice  that  they 
ought  to  pitch  in  because  there  was  a  personal  obligation  rest- 
ing upon  them  to  help  their  parents  and  also  to  make  some- 
thing of  themselves,  their  only  answer  was:  "I  don't  have  to 
because  I  don't  like  that."  They  have  reached  middle  life 
and  are  still  seeking  something  which  they  will  like.  They 
have  drifted  from  occupation  to  occupation,  and  from  occu- 
pation to  idleness,  and  nothing,  not  even  idleness,  has  been 
more  than  momentarily  interesting.  This  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  making  pleasure  the  sole  object  of  life.  The  pleasure- 
seeker  is  the  least  interested  and  most  miserable  being  alive. 


176         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

Teach  the  children  responsibility  and  obligation  to  self  and 
to  society  and  unflagging  persistence  in  accomplishing  in  the 
best  way  "whatsoever  their  hands  find  to  do,"  and  the  matter 
of  interest  will  in  adult  life  largely  care  for  itself. 

With  the  wealth  of  well-written  books  now  accessible  high- 
school  and  college  students  ought  to  progress  and  maintain 
healthy  interests  in  their  studies,  even  with  very  indifferent 
teachers.  This  is  not  an  apology  for  poor  teaching.  The 
teacher's  duty  in  helping  to  maintain  interest  is  in  no  way 
lessened.  But  it  takes  two  parties  to  maintain  good  class- 
work — a  good  teacher  and  a  responsive,  responsible  class. 
An  irresponsible-minded  class  becomes  much  like  the  kinder- 
garten children,  even  under  good  tuition.  The  pupil  must 
learn  that  interest  comes  through  aim,  responsibility,  respon- 
siveness, and  apperception. 

Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  how  unnecessarily  long  pupils  may 
pursue  some  subjects  and  not  learn  them  well  after  all  ?  Take 
penmanship,  for  example.  Most  schools  devote  to  this  sub- 
ject one  period  of  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  daily  for  eight  or 
nine  years,  and  then  not  half  of  the  pupils  can  write  a  legible, 
rapid  hand.  At  one  time  I  began  to  reflect  on  the  wasteful, 
half-hearted,  abortive  process.  I  watched  the  daily  evolu- 
tions of  these  young  soldiers  going  through  the  aimless  (to 
them)  manoeuvres.  They  expected  that  they  would  have  to 
do  the  same  for  eight  years,  anyway.  Time  enough  later  on 
to  improve.  Do  as  little  as  possible  now.  I  tried  an  experi- 
ment. The  pupils  were  told  that  penmanship  would  be  a 
required  exercise  until  they  could  write  a  plain,  legible  hand 
with  fair  rapidity.  As  soon  as  this  degree  of  proficiency  could 
be  attained  and  manifested  in  their  usual  w^ork,  each  one 
should  be  excused.  The  results  were  amazing.  Soon  there 
were  self-seeking  candidates  for  the  privilege  of  being  excused. 
They  began  to  coach  themselves.  They  now  had  a  desirable 
aim  which  enlisted  their  deepest  interest.  They  asked  for  in- 
formation and  help  instead  of  being  unwilling  recipients. 
The  majority  of  the  pupils  were  excused  in  either  the  fourth 
or  fifth  grades,  and  seldom  was  one  demoted  for  further  dere- 


MOTIVATION  AND   INITIATIVE  177 

liction.  A  similar  plan  was  adopted  in  spelling,  with  splen- 
did results.  They  had  no  longer  to  be  taught.  Their  in- 
terests prompted  them  to  teach  themselves.  Whenever  the 
individual  instead  of  the  class  was  made  the  basis  for  promo- 
tion, I  found  largely  similar  results. 

To  say  that  we  ought  to  follow  the  lead  of  a  child's  interest 
is  good  pedagogy,  provided  his  interests  are  healthy  and  have 
come  about  through  normal  development.  But  there  are 
many  unhealthy  and  perverted  interests.  It  is  manifestly 
wrong  to  obey  these.  As  with  instincts,  some  are  good,  others 
bad.  The  good  ones  are  to  be  nourished,  the  bad  stifled  or 
diverted.  It  is  not  more  safe  to  follow  the  child's  interests 
than  his  appetites  for  food.  Left  entirely  to  himself  in  the 
matter,  he  sometimes  selects  pickles  and  jam,  or  superabun- 
dance of  starches,  rather  than  those  things  that  are  nutritious. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  having  the  child  interested,  but,  more 
important,  of  having  him  interested  in  worthy  things.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  think  that,  at  all  events,  children  must  be  happy. 
Happiness  is  desirable,  but  not  the  only  desideratum.  Bet- 
ter be  less  happy  and  more  serious,  if  occupied  with  right 
thoughts  and  actions,  than  happy  in  evil  or  idle  things. 
Better  be  serious  in  work  than  happy  in  sin  and  wickedness. 
Momentary  pleasures  in  childhood  do  not  insure  lifelong  hap- 
piness. The  child  should  learn  early  that  his  own  selfish 
gratification  must  often  be  subordinated  to  the  welfare  of 
others — the  family  and  society.  As  with  instincts,  we  can- 
not trust  all  to  the  child.  Rightly  constituted  authority  must 
set  up  ideals  and  standards  toward  which  individuals  and 
society  must  be  guided,  and  sometimes  even  coerced.  To 
become  deeply  interested  in  things  that  are  worthy  and  en- 
nobling is  of  more  value  than  learning.  The  right  attitude 
toward  life  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  Too  many  are 
secretly  or  openly  interested  in  ignoble  things. 

Adolescence  and  Life-Interests. — It  is  during  adolescence, 
that  period  of  enlarged  vision  and  superabundant  life,  that 
interests  and  enthusiasms  are  at  a  white  heat.  Out  of  the 
manifold  interests  then  dominant  some  will  become  crystal- 


178    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

lized  into  the  permanent  life-interests.  The  stamp  which  is 
impressed  upon  the  youthful  life  will  become  fixed  forever. 
Just  as  conversions  rarely  occur  in  maturity,  just  as  a  criminal 
usually  enters  upon  his  career  in  the  morning  of  life,  so  lives 
of  usefulness,  happiness,  and  virtue  are  launched  while  the 
heart  is  yet  young. 

President  Eliot  wrote: 

Any  one  who  has  read  many  biographies  will  have  perceived  that 
the  guiding  enthusiasm  of  a  life  often  springs  early  into  view  and  that 
this  is  almost  always  the  case  in  the  most  effective  human  beings.  The 
youth  has  a  vision  of  the  life  he  would  Hke  to  live,  of  the  service  he 
would  choose  to  render,  of  the  power  he  would  prefer  to  exercise,  and 
for  fifty  years  he  pursues  this  vision.  In  almost  all  great  men  the 
leading  idea  of  the  life  is  caught  early,  or  a  principle  or  thesis  comes 
to  mind  during  youth  which  the  entire  adult  life  is  too  short  to  develop 
thoroughly.     {Journal  of  Pedagogy,  17,  112.) 

It  is  seldom  that  an  entirely  new  occupation  is  entered  upon 
with  success  after  middle  life.  After  that  a  splendid  super- 
structure may  be  erected,  but  the  foundations  must  have  been 
laid  in  early  hfe.  Although  young  shoulders  should  not  be- 
come bowed  down  by  an  overweening  sense  of  responsibility, 
yet  it  is  sinful  not  to  impress  the  young  with  the  importance 
of  the  morning  of  life.  The  old  adage  that  it  is  never  too 
late  to  mend  should  be  replaced  by  the  one  that  it  is  ever  too 
late  to  become  what  one  might  have  been,  if  an  opportunity 
has  been  allowed  to  slip.  Students  should  early  recognize  the 
importance  of  making  the  most  of  the  morning  of  life.  Biolo- 
gists have  come  to  recognize  the  economic  value  of  the  period 
of  infancy.  This  is  a  time  of  plasticity,  a  time  when  the  in- 
dividual can  be  moulded  and  modified;  in  other  words,  edu- 
cated. The  longer  the  period  of  infancy,  the  higher  the  de- 
gree of  educability.  The  newly  hatched  chick  has  a  short 
period  of  infancy.  On  emerging  from  the  ^%g  it  can  perform 
almost  all  the  activities  which  it  will  ever  be  able  to  perform. 
It  has  very  little  to  learn  and  very  little  time  in  which  to 
learn,  very  little  possibility  of  learning.  The  young  dog  has 
more  to  learn,  a  longer  season  in  which  to  learn  it,  and  larger 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  ^        179 

possibilities  of  acquiring  new  activities.  The  human  being 
has  the  longest  period  of  infancy.  Infancy  is  not  alone  the 
period  when  the  child  is  in  the  cradle.  Biologically  it  includes 
all  of  life  from  birth  to  maturity.  After  this  period  the  possi- 
bilities of  education  grow  less  and  less. 

Brain-workers  inaugurate  their  best  work  between  the  ages 
of  25  and  45;  before  that  they  are  preparing  for  work,  after 
that  their  work,  no  matter  how  extensive,  is  largely  routine. 
Lawyers  and  physicians  do  much  of  their  practice  after  40, 
but  the  learning  was  accomplished  before  40  or  45.  Success- 
ful merchants  lay  the  foundations  for  wealth  and  success  in 
youth  and  middle  life.  The  great  men  that  we  know  are  all 
old  men;  but  the  foundations  for  their  greatness  were  laid 
when  they  were  young.  Philosophers  have  founded  and  an- 
nounced their  systems  in  youth  and  early  manhood;  divines 
and  religious  teachers  have  originated  their  creeds  and  have 
been  most  effective  as  preachers  in  early  manhood.  States- 
men have  projected  their  greatest  acts  of  legislation,  diplo- 
macy, and  reform  in  early  life.  In  the  morning  of  life  scien- 
tists have  wrought  out  the  data  and  practically  formulated 
their  theories;  generals  and  admirals  have  gained  their  great- 
est victories;  lawyers  have  paved  the  way  for  leadership  at 
the  bar;  physicians  have  laid  the  groundwork  for  their  great- 
est discoveries;  poets  and  artists  and  musicians  have  planned 
and  In  many  instances  executed  their  greatest  masterpieces; 
engineers  have  planned  the  greatest  monuments. 

A  few  instances  may  be  cited  to  show  that  the  world's 
leaders  in  all  lines  of  progress  have  either  become  Illustrious 
early  in  life  or  have  done  the  thinking  which  they  have  re- 
served for  later  expression.  Dickens  began  early  to  write. 
The  Pickwick  Papers  was  produced  at  25.  The  works  which 
have  immortalized  his  name  were  all  produced  before  40. 
Ruskin  had  completed  the  first  part  of  his  greatest  work, 
Modern  Painters,  at  28.  Shakespeare  had  produced  some  of 
his  Immortal  plays  before  36.  Bunyan  had  depicted  man's 
cycles  of  hopes,  sorrows,  and  despair  before  35.  Byron  and 
Burns  died  at  36,  Keats  at  25,  Marlowe  at  29,  and  Shelley  at 


i8o       ^EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

30.  Coleridge  wrote  his  "Ancient  Mariner"  at  25,  Goethe 
and  Victor  Hugo  had  produced  works  of  lasting  value  at  20. 
If  Carlyle  had  died  at  45  the  loss  to  literature  would  not  have 
been  great.  Lord  Bacon  had  begun  to  philosophize  at  16, 
and  at  36  had  published  twelve  of  his  essays.  At  29  Descartes 
began  to  outline  his  system,  and  at  41  to  publish  it.  Schelling 
was  a  renowned  university  professor  of  philosophy  at  28. 
Emerson  expressed  the  essence  of  his  philosophy  between  25 
and  40.  His  essays  first  appeared  at  38,  though  they  had 
been  uppermost  in  his  thoughts  from  early  manhood. 

Edison  was  a  young  inventor.  In  fact,  all  inventors  are 
young.  Eli  Whitney  was  noted  at  27,  Colt  at  21,  Fulton  at 
28,  Dreyse  at  42,  Graefe  at  25.  Alexander  the  Great  had 
conquered  Greece  at  21,  Persia  at  25,  and  had  completed  his 
history  at  33.  Julius  Caesar  began  to  take  part  in  the  great 
drama  for  which  he  is  remembered  at  17,  Hannibal  at  29, 
William  the  Conqueror  before  20,  Cromwell  before  30,  Marl- 
borough at  32,  Napoleon  at  25,  Wellington  at  25,  Nelson  at 
39.  Among  artists  and  sculptors  about  three  out  of  four  have 
shown  decided  promise  before  15.  Michelangelo  produced 
great  works  by  19.  Raphael  and  Van  Dyck  painted  famous 
pictures  before  reaching  their  majority.  Rembrandt  was 
famous  at  24.  Among  musicians  we  may  cite  Mozart,  Bee- 
thoven, Mendelssohn,  Schubert,  and  Schumann  as  real  pro- 
ducers before  20;  in  fact,  each  produced  something  original 
by  13. 

If  we  turn  to  muscle-workers  we  find  that  early  in  life  they 
reach  their  maximum,  and  that  their  capacity  is  either  sta- 
tionary or  has  begun  to  decHne  at  35  or  40.  This  is  true  of 
all  athletes,  oarsmen,  pedestrians,  lumbermen,  guides,  farm- 
ers, and  soldiers.  Beard  says:  "To  get  the  best  soldiers  we 
must  rob  neither  the  cradle  nor  the  grave,  but  select  from 
those  decades  when  the  best  brain-work  of  the  world  is  done." 
It  has  been  statistically  determined  by  Sir  Crichton  Browne 
in  England  that  among  the  handicrafts  of  weaving,  button- 
making,  and  pottery-making  there  is  an  increase  in  profi- 
ciency from  17  to  30,  when  the  maximum  is  attained.    From 


MOTIVATION   AND   INITIATIVE  i8i 

30   to  45   there  is  an  equilibrium,  and  after  that  a  gradual 
decline. 

We  are  therefore  strongly  admonished  that  the  most  possi- 
ble should  be  made  of  early  life.  Youth  is  the  time  of  great 
opportunities  which  come  but  once.  We  build  for  eternity. 
The  youth  cannot  sow  wild  oats  and  expect  to  reap  a  charac- 
ter of  noble  manhood  or  womanhood.  "Whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap."  Luther  once  said:  "If  a 
man  is  not  handsome  at  20,  strong  at  30,  learned  at  40,  and 
rich  at  50,  he  will  never  be  handsome,  strong,  learned,  or 
rich  in  the  world." 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Why  should  children  obey  their  parents  and  teachers?  2.  Why 
should  high-school  pupils  obey  the  rules  of  the  school?  3,  Why  should 
adults  obey  the  laws  of  the  state  ?  4.  What  should  be  the  motive  causing 
a  child  to  learn  to  read?  5.  Mention  some  proper  incentives  that  would 
stimulate  children  to  learn  arithmetic,  composition,  drawing,  6.  How 
would  you  get  high-school  pupils  to  be  interested  in  their  school  ?  7.  Indi- 
cate the  motivation  values  of  extracurricular  school  activities.  8.  How 
may  pupils  be  motivated  to  study  more  diligently  ?  9.  What  is  supervised 
study?     Merits  and  demerits  of  supervised  study? 

References  for  'Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXVI. 

2.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chap.  XVII. 

3.  Dewey,  Schools  of  To-morrow,  chaps.  II,  III,  IV,  VI. 

4.  Dewey,  The  School  and  Society,  chap.  II. 

5.  James,  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals,  chap.  X. 

6.  Meriam,  Child  Life  and  the  Curriculum,  chap.  IX. 

7.  Miller,  Directing  Study,  chap.  V. 

8.  O'Shea,  Mental  Development  and  Education,  chap.  XI. 

9.  Parker,  Methods  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools,  chap.  XIV. 
10.  Wilson,  Motivation  of  School  Work.    Entire  book. 


CHAPTER  XII 
CONSERVATION  OF  EXPERIENCE:  MEMORY 

What  Is  Memory  ? — No  attempt  will  be  made  to  define 
memory  in  a  formal  fashion.  It  is  usually  thought  of  as  re- 
calling ideas  that  have  been  previously  learned.  Usually 
also  it  is  thought  of  as  the  recall  of  particular  words.  Mem- 
ory is,  however,  not  limited  to  recall.  That  is  just  one  phase 
of  the  process,  remembering.  We  may  regard  memory  as  in- 
cluding four  factors,  the  so-called  "four  R's" — registration, 
retention,  recall  or  remembering,  and  recognition.  Or  we  might 
think  of  it  as  comprising  two  factors — conservation  and  recall. 
Certainly  the  conserving  or  retaining  is  as  much  a  part  of 
memory  as  recall  or  remembering.  Again,  memory  is  not 
limited  to  words  or  even  ideas.  Muscular  experiences  must 
be  learned,  retained,  and  reproduced,  as  well  as  words  and 
ideas. 

Just  what  takes  place  in  the  mind  or  in  the  body  in  the 
process  of  memory  is  not  very  well  understood.  That  some 
change  takes  place  and  persists  is  certain  because  of  subse- 
quent behavior.  We  also  know  that  modifications  in  nerve- 
cells  take  place  when  continued  long  enough.  The  brain  and 
other  parts  of  the  nervous  system  increase  in  size  and  com- 
plexity through  experience.  If  nerve  connections,  as  in  asso- 
ciation paths,  are  not  exercised  they  do  not  develop,  but  de- 
generate. The  study  of  the  brain  of  Laura  Bridgman  showed 
that  the  parts  exercised  developed  and  those  that  were  un- 
exercised degenerated.  Venn,  an  English  psychologist,  mea- 
sured the  heads  of  some  students  at  the  time  of  entering  Cam- 
bridge University  and  after  four  years  of  training.  He  also 
measured  the  heads  of  a  group  of  non-students  at  correspond- 
ing ages,  and  found  that  the  heads  of  the  Cambridge  students 
grew  more  than  the  heads  of  the  non-university  group.     This 

182 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       183 

shows  that  the  effects  of  learning  seemed  to  be  conserved  in  a 
physical  way.  Scars  from  wounds  seem  to  indicate  a  similar 
conservation  of  bodily  modifications.  From  the  standpoint 
of  mind  we  know  only  by  subsequent  ideas  and  behavior  that 
we  have  retained  something  from  previous  experiences. 

We  are  apt  to  think  about  memory  in  a  very  artificial  way 
because  we  have  usually  associated  the  term  with  the  learn- 
ing of  some  particular  formal  expressions,  like  rules,  definitions, 
or  formulas.  But  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  only 
a  small  part  of  our  everyday  knowledge  is  of  that  type.  Un- 
fortunately, the  school  seems  to  emphasize  that  kind  and  to 
omit  the  kind  that  we  use  every  day  outside  of  school  and 
after  school-days  are  over.  What  knowledge  have  you  used 
to-day  apart  from  school  work?  You  may  have  driven  an 
automobile,  gone  to  a  part  of  the  city  which  you  previously 
knew,  greeted  an  old  acquaintance,  picked  out  a  woollen  gar- 
ment at  the  store,  advised  a  friend  not  to  invest  in  certain 
property,  won  a  game  of  tennis,  read  the  newspaper  and 
criticised  some  of  the  opinions  recorded,  voted  the  Republi- 
can or  Democratic  ticket  at  the  primaries,  written  a  letter  to 
some  of  your  relatives,  or  looked  up  a  word  in  the  dictionary. 
Now,  how  did  you  learn  to  shift  gear  in  the  auto  so  that  you 
could  do  (recall)  that  to-day?  How  could  you  remember 
your  acquaintance,  the  proper  qualities  of  the  woollen  gar- 
ments, whether  to  vote  the  Republican  or  the  Democratic 
ticket,  or  how  to  consult  the  dictionary  ? 

If  much  more  of  school  work  dealt  with  everyday  things 
and  were  learned  in  a  more  natural  everyday  way,  there  would 
be  much  less  of  complaint  about  poor  memories.  When  things 
are  learned  through  doing,  through  natural  relations,  and  gone 
over  from  many  angles  until  they  are  fully  comprehended, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  remembering  them. 

Physical  Basis  of  Memory. — The  property  of  retention  of 
impressions  is  possessed  by  all  living  tissues.  In  a  certain 
sense  we  might  say  that  even  inorganic  matter  sometimes 
possesses  memory.  There  are  many  analogues  both  of  regis- 
tration  and   retention   in   purely   physical   substances.     If  a 


i84        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

piece  of  white  paper  on  which  a  knife  is  placed  is  exposed  to 
the  actinic  rays  of  the  sun,  it  will,  if  kept  in  the  dark,  preserve 
the  image  of  the  knife  for  years.  The  photographer's  sensi- 
tive plate  records  and  retains  impressions  in  a  similar  man- 
ner. The  ocean  which  has  its  surface  ruffled  can  never  have 
identically  the  same  molecular  structure  that  it  previously 
possessed.  "Every  impression,"  says  Delboeuf,  "leaves  a 
certain  ineffaceable  trace;  that  is  to  say,  molecules  once  dis- 
arranged and  forced  to  vibrate  in  a  different  way  cannot 
return  exactly  to  their  primitive  state.  If  I  brush  the  sur- 
face of  water  at  rest  with  a  feather,  the  liquid  will  not  take 
again  the  form  which  it  had  before.  It  may  present  a  smooth 
surface,  but  molecules  will  have  changed  places,  and  an  eye 
of  sufficient  power  would  see  traces  of  the  passage  of  the 
feather.  Organic  molecules  acquire  a  greater  or  less  degree 
of  aptitude  for  submitting  to  disarrangement.  No  doubt,  if 
this  same  exterior  force  did  not  again  act  upon  the  same 
molecules,  they  would  tend  to  return  to  their  natural  form; 
but  it  is  far  otherwise  if  the  action  is  several  times  repeated. 
In  this  case  they  lose,  little  by  little,  the  power  of  returning 
to  their  original  form,  and  become  more  and  more  closely 
identified  with  that  which  is  forced  upon  them,  until  this  be- 
comes natural  in  its  turn,  and  they  again  obey  the  least  cause 
that  will  set  them  in  vibration."  {Theorie  generale  de  la  sen- 
sibilite,  p.  6o.) 

Dissolve  a  crystalline  salt,  say  sodium  chloride,  and  then 
let  it  recrystallize.  The  crystals  will  not  resume  the  same 
positions  relative  to  each  other,  but  the  crystals  themselves 
will  assume  exactly  the  same  geometrical  form  as  previously. 
Water  crystallizes  in  definite  forms.  Why  is  this?  Who 
shall  say  that  it  is  not  at  least  a  form  of  heredity?  James 
quotes  M.  Leon  Dumont,  who  says  that  inorganic  substances 
and  dead  tissues  form  habits. 

Every  one  knows  how  a  garment,  after  being  worn  a  certain  time, 
clings  to  the  shape  of  the  body  better  than  when  it  was  new;  there  has 
been  a  change  in  the  tissue,  and  this  change  is  a  new  habit  of  cohesion. 
A  lock  works  better  after  being  used  some  time;  at  the  outset  more 


CONSERVATION  OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       185 

force  was  required  to  overcome  certain  roughnesses  in  the  mechanism. 
The  overcoming  of  their  resistance  is  a  phenomenon  of  habituation. 
It  costs  less  trouble  to  fold  a  paper  when  it  has  been  folded  already. 
.  .  .  The  sounds  of  a  violin  improve  by  use  in  the  hands  of  an  able 
artist,  because  the  fibres  of  the  wood  at  last  contract  habits  of  vibra- 
tion conformed  to  harmonic  relations.  (James,  Principles  of  Psychol- 
ogy, vol.  I,  p.  105.) 

Analogy  of  the  Phonograph. — Lloyd  Morgan  compares  ana- 
logically retention  in  the  phonograph  to  physiological  reten- 
tion. 

When  we  speak  into  a  phonograph  the  tones  of  our  voice  are  not 
hidden  away  in,  and  retained  by,  the  cylinder  of  the  instrument;  but 
the  wax  or  other  material  is  indented,  as  a  result  of  the  incidence  of 
the  sound-waves,  in  such  a  way  that  it  is  capable  of  reproducing  similar 
sound-waves  at  a  subsequent  time.  So,  too,  the  brain  tissue  is  so 
modified  by  the  nervous  disturbances  which  are  the  accompaniments 
of  an  impression  that,  under  appropriate  neural  conditions,  they  tend 
to  reproduce  similar  nervous  disturbances  which  are  accompanied  in 
consciousness  by  a  reinstatement  of  the  impressions  in  the  form  of  an 
idea.  It  is  in  this  sense  only  that  we  may  speak  of  the  retention  of 
ideas.  .  .  .  The  ideas  as  such  have  ceased  to  exist;  but  the  brain 
structure  has  been  modified  in  such  a  way  that  under  appropriate 
conditions  similar  ideas  will  be  again  produced.  {Introduction  to  Com- 
parative Psychology,  p.  106.) 

The  great  bulk  of  our  memories  are  of  the  physical  and 
physiological  types.  The  results  of  our  behavior  are  recorded 
in  our  nerve-cells,  muscles,  and  other  tissues,  as  well  as  in  the 
mind.  We  develop  intricate  tissues  of  habits.  These  enable 
us  to  re-do  a  multitude  of  things  without  consciously  recalling 
just  what  we  are  to  do.  When  we  walk,  dance,  swim,  or  shift 
gear  In  the  automobile  we  do  not  need  to  revive  verbal  memo- 
ries of  what  we  are  to  accomplish.  In  fact.  It  is  better  that 
we  do  not.  The  actions  are  more  expeditiously  reinstated  by 
means  of  the  reflex  mechanisms  than  by  conscious  recall. 

Although  the  physical  basis  of  memory  has  been  empha- 
sized, it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  there  is  such  a  fact  as 
mental  life.  While  plants  have  no  mental  life  and  the  life  of 
lower  animals  Is  largely  physical  and  physiological,  not  all  of 


1 86    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

life  is  included  in  muscular  reflexes  or  in  physiological  and 
chemical  reactions.  The  knowledge  of  all  these  is  mental, 
and  that  is  the  chief  field  of  psychology. 

Retention. — In  a  certain  sense  everything  that  is  experi- 
enced is  retained.  Of  course  we  may  not  be  able  to  recall  it, 
but  it  modifies  ©ur  subsequent  behavior.  From  the  biological 
standpoint  we  are  led  to  believe  that  every  impression  leaves 
its  ineffaceable  trace.  Who  could  pass  an  examination  upon 
the  Sunday-school  lessons,  upon  the  good  counsels  of  parents, 
teachers,  and  friends?  Even  though  the  recall  of  specific 
facts  and  precepts  is  impossible,  every  one  of  us  behaves  dif- 
ferently because  of  all  previous  experiences.  This  ought  to 
encourage  teachers.  In  spite  of  the  disappointing  examina- 
tions passed  by  our  pupils,  we  may  be  comforted  by  the  im- 
plicit belief  that  the  large  ideas  and  the  worthy  ideals  which 
we  have  helped  them  to  gain  will  be  permanent  influences  in 
their  character. 

Individual  Differences. — There  are  very  great  differences  of 
memory  among  individuals.  There  are  persons  who  acquire 
readily  but  forget  quickly;  those  that  acquire  with  difficulty, 
but  retain  accurately  and  tenaciously.  Again,  there  are  for- 
tunate persons  who  acquire  easily  and  retain  with  great  per- 
sistence and  fidelity,  as  well  as  some  who  work  hard  to  acquire 
only  to  be  chagrined  on  having  what  is  learned  evaporate 
almost  as  soon  as  learned.  When  one  remembers  things 
learned  through  a  given  sense  better  than  what  is  learned 
through  the  other  senses,  we  say  that  he  has  a  certain  "type" 
of  memory.  There  are  types  of  memory  corresponding  to  each 
of  the  senses.  Some  persons  possess  one  type,  some  another. 
Again,  there  are  persons  who  have  memories  that  vary  within 
the  realm  of  a  given  sense.  There  are  also  all  degrees  of 
variations,  from  the  special  power  of  remembering  rem^ark- 
ably  certain  words,  certain  forms,  certain  sounds,  or  certain 
colors,  up  to  the  very  exaggerated  cases  which  we  find  in 
abnormal  persons,  or  the  mathematical,  musical,  and  other 
**  prodigies." 

There  are  also  di^erences  in  the  same  individual  at  differ- 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       187 

ent  stages  of  development.  Children  are  usually  thought  to 
have  better  memories  than  adults.  This  view  is  hardly  cor- 
rect, however.  Children's  memories  are  different  from  adults'. 
Children  acquire  even  mechanical  associations  more  slowly 
than  adults.  They  retain  mechanical  associations  better 
when  once  learned,  but  adults  retain  thoughtful  associations 
better.  Both  the  power  of  registering  and  retaining  thought- 
fully increase  up  to  about  25  years.  The  powers  are  relatively 
stationary  then  until  about  50,  when  a  gradual  decline  sets 
in.  These  various  differences  suggest  a  recognition  of  differ- 
ent methods  of  teaching  persons  of  different  ages,  and  also 
an  adaptation  of  means  and  methods  for  persons  of  different 
memory  types. 

In  order  to  adjust  the  work  of  the  school  to  the  different 
stages  of  growth  it  is  important  to  understand  the  character- 
istics of  memory  at  the  various  ages  and  stages  of  growth. 
The  memory  of  the  child  is  of  the  mechanical  or  serial  type. 
The  child  from  6  to  lo  can  learn  nonsense  rhymes  and  jingles 
nearly  as  well  as  at  a  later  age.  A  great  many  persons,  in 
fact,  in  later  life  excuse  themselves  by  saying  that  their  "mem- 
ories are  not  as  good  as  they  used  to  be."  They  mean,  of 
course,  their  mechanical  memories,  as  manifested  by  their 
facility  in  learning  poetry,  dates,  nonsense  rhymes,  or  jingles. 

Should  Everything  Be  Remembered? — Some  people  think 
they  would  like  to  be  able  to  recall  everything  they  have  ever 
learned.  They  think  that  would  mean  a  highly  trained  mind. 
But  would  it  be  desirable  to  recall  every  experience  that  one 
has  had?  Would  it  not  be  exceedingly  inconvenient  and 
cumbersome  if  every  experience  that  has  ever  been  associated 
with  a  given  experience  should  be  recalled  every  time  the 
given  one  came  into  consciousness?  What  an  immense 
amount  of  time  would  be  wasted  in  recalling  trivial  and  un- 
important details.  Remember  that  the  unimportant  details 
are  just  as  much  a  part  of  the  experience  as  the  significant 
factors.  It  is  fortunate  that  we  are  able  to  select  the  impor- 
tant and  significant  factors  in  our  experiences  and  cast  into 
the  scrap-heap  those  items  which  are  useless.     Some  one  has 


1 88    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

aptly  characterized  memory  as  our  "forgetter."  A  really 
good  memory  forgets  the  unimportant  details.  Most  of  us 
would  gladly  forget  a  large  part  of  our  past  lives.  In  com- 
menting on  the  type  of  mind  which  recalls  with  extreme 
fidelity  every  association,  James  says  {Psychology^  vol.  I,  p. 
571): 

Perhaps  as  successful  a  rendering  as  any  of  this  mental  type  is  the 
character  of  Miss  Bates  in  Miss  Austen's  ''Emma."  Hear  how  she  re- 
dintegrates: 

"But  where  could  you  hear  it?"  cried  Miss  Bates.  "Where  could 
you  possibly  hear  it,  Mr.  Knightley  ?  For  it  is  not  five  minutes  since 
I  received  Mrs.  Cole's  note — no,  it  cannot  be  more  than  five — or  at 
least  ten — for  I  had  got  my  bonnet  and  spencer  on,  just  ready  to  come 
out — I  was  only  gone  down  to  speak  to  Patty  again  about  the  pork — 
Jane  was  standing  in  the  passage — were  not  you,  Jane? — for  my 
mother  was  so  afraid  that  we  had  not  any  salting-pan  large  enough. 
So  I  said  I  would  go  down  and  see,  and  Jane  said:  'Shall  I  go  down 
instead  ?  for  I  think  you  have  a  little  cold,  and  Patty  has  been  wash- 
ing in  the  kitchen.'  'Oh,  my  dear,'  said  I — wxll,  and  just  then  came 
the  note.  A  Miss  Hawkins — that's  all  I  know — a  Miss  Hawkins,  of 
Bath.  But,  Mr.  Knightley,  how  could  you  possibly  have  heard  it? 
For  the  very  moment  Mr.  Cole  told  IMrs.  Cole  of  it,  she  sat  down  and 
wrote  to  me.     A  Miss  Hawkins " 

Memory  Training. — How  to  train  and  improve  memory  is 
a  theme  upon  which  volumes  have  been  written.  Some  of  the 
ancients  devised  systems  of  mnemonics  for  memory  training, 
and  such  systems  have  been  in  vogue  to  the  present  time. 
The  magazines  are  full  of  advertisements  of  courses  of  lessons 
and  books  on  memory  systems,  "Stop  Forgetting!"  "Get  a 
Steel  Trap  Memory!"  "Increase  Your  Efficiency!"  are  fa- 
miliar "ads"  in  the  popular  magazines. 

Because  of  the  remarkable  success  of  psychology  in  the  army 
a  deluge  of  books  on  psychology  has  been  published.  "Char- 
acterology"  and  "Character  Reading  at  a  Glance"  and  other 
popular  and  often  populous  lectures  are  being  given.  Most 
of  these  books  and  these  lectures  are  given  by  quacks  and 
charlatans.  Upon  no  other  topic  is  more  written  by  these 
pseudoscientists    than    upon    memory.     Most   of   these   and 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       189 

other  so-called  ''memory  systems"  teach  that  the  way  to  Im- 
prove memory  is  by  memory  gymnastics. 

Upon  few  other  technical  questions  is  the  layman  so  willing 
to  deliver  opinions  as  upon  methods  of  improving  memory. 
He  does  not  feel  it  hazardous  to  do  so,  but  regards  his  conclu- 
sions as  incontrovertible.  The  usual  advice  is  to  memorize 
much,  verbatim  and  mechanically.  Set  apart  a  portion  of 
every  day  for  committing  verses,  proverbs,  speeches,  or  strings 
of  dates.  It  is  asserted  that  the  gymnastics  thus  used  will 
strengthen  the  memory,  not  only  in  the  particular  direction, 
but  also  equally  as  much  in  all  other  directions.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  memory  is  a  general  power,  capable  of  memorizing 
anything  when  once  developed.  On  this  theory  "  the  memory 
organ"  might  be  likened  to  a  muscle,  the  fibre  of  which  can 
be  strengthened  by  general  gymnastics.  Let  us  investigate 
to  ascertain  the  facts  which  have  a  bearing  upon  the  question. 

Fortunately  it  is  possible  to  submit  the  question  to  experi- 
mental tests  and  not  leave  it  in  the  realm  of  mere  opinion. 
The  test  is  rather  simple  in  character,  although  demanding 
care,  patience,  and  persistence  in  its  performance.  The  steps 
are  as  follows: 

1.  Test  the  ability  to  memorize  a  given  kind  of  material 

before  taking  training. 

2.  Practice  in  memorizing  a  totally  different  kind  of  material. 

This  should  be  continued  for  a  considerable  length  of 
time,  say  two  or  three  months. 

3.  Test  on  the  original  kind  of  material  after  taking  the 

practice. 

4.  Compare  the  results  in  Tests  i  and  3. 

EXPERIMENTAL   EVIDENCE 

The  first  experiment  of  this  kind  was  performed  by  Pro- 
fessor James  of  Harvard,  about  1890.  James's  interesting 
account  of  the  experiment  was  in  the  following  words  {Psy- 
chology, vol.  I,  p.  666): 

In  order  to  test  the  opinion  so  confidently  expressed  in  the  text,  I 
have  tried  to  see  whether  a  certain  amount  of  daily  training  in  learning 


I90    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

poetry  by  heart  will  shorten  the  time  it  takes  to  learn  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent kind  of  poetry.  During  8  successive  days  I  learned  158  lines  of 
Victor  Hugo's  "Satyr."  The  total  number  of  minutes  required  for 
this  was  131% — it  should  be  said  that  I  had  learned  nothing  by  heart 
for  many  years.  I  then,  working  for  20-odd  minutes  daily,  learned 
the  entire  first  book  of  "Paradise  Lost,"  occupying  38  days  in  the 
process.  After  this  training  I  went  back  to  Victor  Hugo's  poem  and 
found  that  158  additional  lines  (divided  exactly  as  on  the  former  occa- 
sion) took  me  i5i>^  minutes.  In  other  words,  I  committed  my  Victor 
Hugo  to  memory  before  the  training  at  the  rate  of  a  line  in  50  seconds, 
after  the  training  at  the  rate  of  a  line  in  57  seconds,  just  the  opposite 
result  from  that  which  the  popular  view  would  lead  one  to  expect. 
But  as  I  was  perceptibly  fagged  with  other  work  at  the  time  of  the 
second  batch  of  Victor  Hugo,  I  thought  that  might  explain  the  retar- 
dation; so  I  persuaded  several  other  persons  to  repeat  the  test. 

Doctor  W.  H.  Burnham,  who  tried  the  same  method, 
learned  for  8  days  previous  to  training  16  lines  of  "In  Me- 
moriam"  each  day.  This  required  14  to  17  minutes  daily, 
average  14^  minutes.  As  training  he  committed  daily  for 
26  consecutive  days  Schiller's  translation  of  the  second  book 
of  the  "iEneid."  This  afforded  an  entirely  different  kind  of 
material  from  the  preliminary  test.  Returning  to  "In  Me- 
moriam,"  he  found  the  average  time  for  16  lines  to  be  14H 
minutes — maximum  20,  minimum  10.  Mr.  E.  A.  Pease  made 
a  preliminary  test  on  "Idylls  of  the  King,"  then  trained  him- 
self on  "Paradise  Lost"  (length  of  time  and  daily  amount 
should  be  given  but  are  not).  The  average  time  for  a  given 
number  of  lines  in  the  6  days  preliminary  to  the  training  was 
14I4  minutes,  for  the  test  after  training,  I4lf . 

In  order  to  bring  the  matter  before  my  students  in  a  con- 
crete way,  I  persuaded  two  of  them  to  undertake  a  series  of 
experiments,  covering  In  one  case  thirty-five  days  and  in  the 
other  fifty  days.  Five  days  In  each  case  were  taken  for  the 
preliminary  tests,  five  for  the  final  tests  for  comparison,  and 
twenty-five  and  forty  days  respectively  for  the  drill.  The 
preliminary  tests  consisted  in  the  memorizing  of  miscellane- 
ous matter,  such  as  lists  of  nonsense  syllables,  lists  of  figures, 
selections  of  poetry,  pieces  of  prose  of  varying  degrees  of 
difficulty,  one  being  from  Harper's   Fourth  Reader  and  the 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       191 

other  from  Herlng's  Memory,  a  list  of  twenty  titles  of  un- 
familiar books,  and  the  names  on  a  series  of  bottles  holding 
chemical  reagents.  Each  test  was  concluded  as  soon  as  any 
fatigue  was  noticeable.  They  thus  varied  somewhat  in 
length.  Only  one  test  of  a  kind  was  taken  at  a  given  sitting, 
and  the  tests  were  throughout  so  varied  and  unexpected  in 
character  to  the  student  that  there  was  no  possible  chance 
for  the  effects  of  practice  to  enter  into  them.  (In  James's 
tests  it  seems  as  if  practice  on  the  preliminaries  and  finals 
might  affect  the  results.  He  discredits  two  other  series  re- 
corded by  him,  in  which  the  preliminary  practice  and  finals 
occupied  fifteen  and  sixteen  days  respectively.  See  Principles 
of  Psychology,  I,  p.  667.)  Both  of  the  students  were  unfa- 
miliar with  chemical  nomenclature,  and  the  labels  were  partly 
in  words  and  partly  in  symbols,  e.  g.,  HNO3  and  Hydric 
Acetate.  When  learning  the  list  of  unfamihar  book  titles, 
only  the  backs  of  the  books  were  exposed,  so  as  to  shut  out 
as  many  associations  as  possible  of  names  with  books.  It 
was,  however,  rendered  easier  by  the  sizes  and  colors  than  a 
list  merely  written  or  pronounced.  There  were  twenty-five 
nonsense  syllables  in  each  list,  and  the  number  list  contained 
forty-seven  digits,  arranged  so  as  not  to  be  in  a  serial  order. 
Each  was  to  be  learned  as  a  separate  number.  Thus  there 
were  tests  in  which  as  many  associations  as  possible  were  re- 
moved, lists  in  which  as  many  association  helps  as  possible 
were  included,  and  then  intermediate  lists.  (Instead  of  fig- 
ures and  letters,  arbitrary  characters  and  forms  might  per- 
haps have  been  given  to  be  drawn,  and  arbitrary  sounds 
might  have  been  uttered  to  be  reproduced.  This  would  have 
excluded  association  still  more.)  A  list  was  regarded  as  mem- 
orized when  it  could  be  repeated  or  written  (as  the  student 
chose)  with  a  minimum  number  of  mistakes — omissions,  trans- 
positions, or  substitutions.  It  would  have  been  interesting 
to  determine  how  much  could  be  reproduced  after  certain 
lapses  of  time.  This  was  contemplated  at  the  beginning,  but, 
in  the  press  of  other  duties,  after  being  only  partially  com- 
pleted, had  to  be  abandoned. 


192         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

One  of  the  students,  after  the  preHmlnary  results,  trained 
herself  for  forty  days  by  committing  for  twenty  minutes  daily 
parts  of  Tennyson's  "In  Memoriam,"  learning  the  introduc- 
tion and  seventeen  sections.  The  other  student  took  for  her 
memory  gymnastics  thirty  minutes  daily  of  mechanical  mem- 
orizing, which  she  was  able  to  continue  twenty-five  days. 
She  did  not  drill  on  one  form  of  composition,  but  alternated, 
according  to  interest,  between  prose  and  poetry.  The  final 
tests  for  comparison  with  the  preliminaries  were  of  the  same 
kind  and  amounts,  and  given  under  the  same  conditions  as 
the  preliminary  tests.  The  lists  of  nonsense  syllables,  digits, 
book  titles,  and  chemical  labels  contained  the  same  number  as 
in  the  corresponding  preliminary  test,  and  the  material  for 
continuous  discourse  was  from  the  same  selections  as  used  in 
the  preliminary  test. 

On  comparing  the  results  "before  taking"  and  "after  tak- 
ing," and  considering  all  conditions,  both  of  the  students  vol- 
untarily stated  in  written  reports  of  the  experiments  that 
they  believed  James  was  right.  In  some  parts  of  the  tests 
subsequent  to  the  practice,  slight  gains  were  shown.  In  some 
others  losses  were  disclosed,  and  in  others  no  changes.  The 
gains  were  more  numerous,  but  the  losses  greater  in  amount 
than  were  the  gains.  For  example,  student  A  committed  267 
words  of  poetry  in  30  minutes  before  practice,  and  only  189 
words  of  the  same  selection  after  practice.  Student  B  com- 
mitted 260  words  of  poetry  in  the  same  period  before  prac- 
tice, and  only  200  after  practice.  In  one  case  47  digits  were 
learned  in  15^  minutes  before  practice,  while  it  took  only 
10^  minutes  after  practice.  Neither  the  gains  nor  losses 
have  any  special  significance.  The  gains  are  more  noticeable 
in  the  purely  mechanical  forms  where  methods  of  learning 
could  be  standardized.  The  variations  probably  represent 
different  conditions  of  the  learner.  The  gains  ought  to  pre- 
dominate over  the  losses,  with  no  other  influence  than  that 
of  the  discovery  of  the  best  methods  of  learning  the  particular 
kind  of  material.  A  slight  gain  from  this  source  ought  to  be 
expected.     Such  gain  would  not  contradict  James's  position. 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       193 

In  all  of  the  instances  where  gains  were  shown,  the  students 
explained  that  they  had  been  able  to  acquire  a  peculiar  knack 
or  trick  of  grouping  the  materials.  It  was  also  true  in  the 
same  cases  that  more  mistakes  and  more  substitutions  oc- 
curred, and  the  subject  did  not  feel  so  sure  of  the  results.  In 
the  cases  of  the  book  titles  both  students  said  that  it  hap- 
pened that  a  few  partially  familiar  titles  came  in  the  second 
list  and  none  in  the  first. 

Memorizing. — In  former  times  a  great  deal  of  school  work 
was  learned  verbatim  and  pupils  recited  the  words  of  the 
book.  As  a  consequence  writers  on  psychology  and  educa- 
tional theory  have  written  much  on  methods  of  memorizing. 
To  such  an  extent  has  this  been  true  that  one  might  think 
that  was  the  only  important  kind  of  memory  work.  In  recent 
years  teachers  have  gone  to  the  other  extreme  and  have  re- 
quired almost  nothing  to  be  memorized  verbatim.  Very  lit- 
tle has  been  written  on  rational  methods  of  acquiring  and 
retaining.  In  fact,  most  students  of  psychology  and  educa- 
tional theory  fail  to  recognize  the  element  of  memory  unless 
the  learning  process  deals  with  memorizing. 

One  of  the  questions  relating  to  memorizing  that  has  been 
widely  discussed  is  regarding  the  relative  efficiency  of  the 
"whole"  and  "part"  methods.  In  attempting  to  learn  a 
selection  verbatim  it  is  said  by  some  that  it  is  much  more 
economical  to  read  the  selection  clear  through  as  many  times 
as  are  necessary,  than  to  read  a  part,  fix  that  in  the  memory, 
and  then  memorize  another  part.  Experiments  demonstrate 
that  to  be  true  in  case  of  short  poems,  but  common  sense 
teaches  us  that  it  is  not  true  if  the  selection  is  very  long. 
For  example,  if  one  were  to  try  to  memorize  "Paradise  Lost," 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  or  the  entire  Bible,  it  would  be  absurd  to 
read  from  beginning  to  end  each  time.  When  the  principle 
is  applied  to  learning  the  content  of  an  entire  subject,  Hke 
history,  psychology,  or  geometry,  it  is  at  once  recognized  that 
they  must  be  learned  bit  by  bit,  and  that  the  only  rational 
way  is  to  go  from  the  part  to  the  whole. 

If  a  relatively  short  selection  is  to  be  learned,  probably  the 


194 


EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 


whole  method  is  the  most  economical.     From  Pyle  and  Sny- 
der's experiment  the  following  statistics  bear  on  this  point. 

LEARNING  240  LLNES  BY  WHOLE  AND  PART  METHODS 


METHOD 

NUMBER   OF 
DAYS  REQUIRED 

NUMBER   OF 
MINUTES  REQUIRED 

Thirty  lines  per  day  memorized,  then 
whole  reviewed  till  all  could  be  re- 
cited  

Three  readings  per  day  of  whole  till  it 
could  be  recited           .    . 

12 
ID 

431 

348 

This  experiment  showed  an  economy  of  about  20  per  cent 
by  the  whole  method.  Other  experiments  have  given  similar 
results.  Woodworth  {Psychology,  p.  344)  comments  on  the 
experiment  as  follows: 

However,  the  matter  is  not  quite  so  simple,  as,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, the  results  tend  the  other  way.  Let  us  consider  a  very  differ- 
ent type  of  learning  test.  A  "pencil  maze,"  consisting  of  passages  or 
grooves  to  be  traced  out  with  a  pencil,  while  the  whole  thing  was  con- 
cealed from  the  subject  by  a  screen,  was  so  arranged  that  it  could  be 
divided  into  four  parts  and  each  part  learned  separately.  Four  squads 
of  learners  were  used.  Squads  A  and  B  learned  the  maze  as  a  whole, 
squads  C  and  D  part  by  part.  Squads  A  and  C  learned  by  spaced 
trials,  two  trials  per  day.  Squad  B  learned  the  whole  thing  at  one 
sitting;  while  squad  D,  which  came  ofif  best  of  all,  learned  one  part  a 
day  for  four  days,  and  on  the  fifth  day  learned  to  put  the  parts  to- 
gether. The  results  appear  in  the  adjoining  table,  which  shows  the 
average  time  required  to  master  the  maze  by  each  of  the  four  methods. 


PART  AND  WHOLE  LEARNING,  SPACED  AND  UNSPACED, 

IN  THE  PENCIL  MAZE 

From  Pechstein 


SPACED    TRIALS 

UNSPACED   TRIALS 

Whole  learning. . . 

A     641  seconds 
C  1,220 

B  1,250  seconds 
D     538        " 

Part  learning 

When  the  trials  were  spaced,  the  whole  method  was  much  the  better; 
but  when  the  trials  were  bunched,  the  part  method  was  much  the 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       195 

better;  and,  on  the  whole,  the  unspaced  part  learning  was  the  best  of 
all.  Thus  the  result  stands  in  apparent  contradiction  with  two  ac- 
cepted laws :  that  of  the  advantage  of  spaced  learning,  and  that  of  the 
advantage  of  whole  learning. 

This  contradiction  warns  us  not  to  accept  the  "laws"  too  blindly, 
but  rather  to  analyze  out  the  factors  of  advantage  in  each  method, 
and  govern  ourselves  accordingly. 

Even  if  the  "whole"  method  were  true  for  all  kinds  of 
memorizing,  it  would  not  be  a  very  important  principle,  be- 
cause outside  of  school  very  little  is  or  should  be  memorized 
verbatim  or  mechanically.  It  is  seldom  that  our  everyday 
occupations  require  that  form  of  memory.  We  learn  to  know 
our  acquaintances,  our  business,  and  our  pastimes  in  a  much 
more  natural  way.  The  school  subjects,  apart  from  spelling, 
the  multiplication  table,  and  a  few  other  activities,  seldom 
should  be  learned  mechanically.  History,  geography,  and  lit- 
erature are  great  complexes  of  ideas  and  concepts,  and  no 
mere  mechanical  expressions  can  represent  them. 

Association  in  Relation  to  Memory. — One  of  the  most  im- 
portant factors  in  recording  experiences  is  that  of  association. 
It  is  therefore  a  prime  factor  in  determining  recall.  For  ex- 
ample, I  see  the  sign  "Lotta  Miles,"  and  I  at  once  think  of 
Kelly-Springfield  tires;  "Ivory  Soap,"  and  "It  floats"  imme- 
diately pops  into  my  mind.  These  recalls  have  taken  place 
because  I  have  seen  the  combinations  innumerable  times. 
The  establishment  of  these  relations  between  experiences  is 
termed  association.  Or  it  may  be  more  formally  defined  as 
the  process  of  establishing  relations  between  or  among  experi- 
ences. It  is  equally  true  that  it  is  the  result  of  establishing 
relations  between  or  among  experiences.  It  is  a  registration 
process  rather  than  a  recall  process. 

Not  all  associations  are  mental  connections.  All  associa- 
tion has  a  physical  basis.  It  may  be  physiological,  i.  e.,  be 
concerned  with  life  processes  like  swallowing  or  forming  other 
muscular  habits.  All  our  everyday  habits  depend  upon 
motor  reactions  of  a  mechanical  sort.  Standing,  walking, 
arranging  one's  clothes,  opening  and  closing  doors,  avoiding 


196         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

obstacles,  following  habitual  paths,  holding  one's  book  open 
to  read,  dipping  one's  pen  in  the  right  bottle,  using  knives 
and  forks  properly,  could  not  be  carried  on  were  these  organic 
associations  not  properly  established.  Skill  in  games  is 
reached  only  after  effort  in  establishing  muscular  co-ordina- 
tions (associations).  Once  established,  it  is  necessary  to  think 
only  of  the  end  in  view  to  awaken  the  entire  sequence  of  proc- 
esses necessary  to  accomplish  the  result.  Each  step  is  the 
necessary  stimulus  to  call  the  next  step  into  activity.  The 
associations  formed  in  riding  a  bicycle  or  learning  to  dance 
are  very  largely  physiological.  Little  mentality  needs  to  be 
put  into  either  act.  What  there  is  belongs  to  the  ideomotor 
type.  An  obstruction  is  encountered  with  the  bicycle.  The 
muscles  hit  upon  the  successful  method  of  acquiring  control, 
and  this  co-ordination  is  remembered,  not  as  a  conscious 
process,  because  few  could  describe  it,  but  it  is  retained  as 
organic  memory. 

Such  school  activities  as  writing,  drawing,  oral  reading,  and 
spelling  acquire  perfection  only  after  mechanical,  organic 
associations  have  been  definitely  fixed.  The  learning  of  one's 
mother  tongue  depends  upon  associations  (a)  between  the 
idea  and  the  word,  (b)  between  the  sound  of  the  word  and  the 
movement  of  the  vocal  organs  in  producing  the  sound,  (c)  be- 
tween the  idea  and  the  written  or  printed  symbol,  (d)  between 
the  sound  of  the  word  and  the  written  or  printed  symbol  rep- 
resenting it,  (e)  between  each  of  these  and  the  various  quali- 
ties making  up  the  idea. 

The  Direction  of  the  Association. — Associations  are  the 
basis  of  habits,  and  as  in  habits  the  activities  in  a  chain  of 
associations  become  linked  together  in  such  a  way  that  the 
order  becomes  very  definite.  Everybody  knows  how  quickly 
the  alphabet  can  be  repeated  forward,  and  also  that  it  takes 
longer  to  repeat  it  backward;  how  much  longer  they  do  not 
usually  realize.  Repeated  experiments  with  college  classes 
have  shown  me  that  it  takes  about  three  seconds  to  say  it  for- 
ward and  thirty  seconds  to  say  it  backward.  Great  diffi- 
culty, even  tension,  is  experienced  by  most  persons  who  try 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   IMEMORY       197 

to  say  It  backward.  Also,  instead  of  proceeding  smoothly 
and  continuously  from  Z  to  A,  they  are  obliged  to  go  a  little 
way,  say  to  R,  and  repeat  it  forward.  At  the  same  time 
they  try  to  build  up  an  association  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  then  repeat  it  backward.  One  who  had  committed  a 
poem  to  memory  would  not  attempt  to  reverse  the  order  of 
words.  Only  a  few  words  can  be  spelled  backward  by  most 
of  us. 

The  far-reaching  importance  of  this  principle  is,  however, 
too  often  unappreciated  and  violated.  The  teacher  gives  the 
child  the  combination  7  X  8  =  56  and  is  amazed  when  the 
child  cannot  tell  that  8  X  7  =  56.  The  brightest  children 
may  reverse  the  combination  and  thus  happen  upon  the  right 
answer,  while  the  rest  are  called  stupid.  It  is  rather  a  case 
of  pedagogical  blundering;  7  X  8  is  not  the  same  as  8  X  7 
any  more  than  c-a-t  is  the  same  as  t-a-c.  8  -f  7  is  not  the 
same  as  7  +  8;  36  ^  9  is  not  the  same  as  36  -^  4;  K  of  4  is 
not  the  same  as  4  -f-  2  or  t  of  4-  To  make  the  child  see 
the  equivalences  is  a  part  of  the  process.  They  are  not  usu- 
ally seen  by  the  child  until  pointed  out. 

In  teaching  foreign  languages  this  principle  is  frequently 
overlooked.  The  usual  procedure  in  the  translation  method 
is  to  have  the  pupil  look  at  the  foreign  word  and  then  say 
the  English  equivalent.  For  example,  the  pupil  looks  at  the 
word  Knabe  and  says  boy,  Madchen  and  says  girl,  livre  and 
says  book,  le  chien  and  says  dog.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the 
pupil  does  not  learn  to  speak  the  language  readily.  The 
chain  of  associations  has  been  from  foreign  printed  symbols 
to  native  spoken  words,  instead  of  from  object  or  idea  to  for- 
eign spoken  word.  In  many  classes  the  pupils  seldom  read 
the  German,  always  translating.  Thus  the  ear  never  be- 
comes accustomed  to  the  sound  of  the  foreign  language.  Still 
less  are  there  associations  built  up  between  ideas,  spoken  for- 
eign word  and  printed  foreign  word.  While  in  Germany  as 
a  student  I  noticed  that  many  American  students  always 
tried  to  take  notes  on  the  lectures  (given  In  German,  of  course) 
in   English.     As   a   result   those   students   never   learned   to 


198    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

understand  the  lectures  well.  They  constantly  heard  one 
language  and  thought  another.  As  a  result  both  processes 
were  hindered.  The  students  who  went  into  the  lectures  and 
began  taking  down  in  German  as  much  as  possible,  if  only  a 
single  word  in  a  sentence,  soon  became  accustomed  to  grasp 
the  thought  and  to  record  it  in  the  same  language.  Their 
progress  was  decidedly  faster  than  in  the  case  of  those  who 
resorted  to  translation  methods. 

I  have  frequently  tried  the  following  experiment  with 
classes:  (i)  A  list  of  German  words  was  given  to  be  translated 
at  sight  into  English.  The  time  taken  and  the  number  of 
mistakes  were  recorded.  (2)  A  list  of  English  words  equally 
long  and  of  the  same  difficulty  was  given  to  be  translated  at 
sight  into  German.  The  time  necessary  to  translate  the  list 
of  German  into  English  is  always  much  less  than  when  the 
translation  is  from  English  into  German.  The  latter  often 
takes  twice  as  long  and  more  mistakes  occur.  The  result  is  a 
perfectly  natural  one.  Ease  and  rapidity  of  functioning  is  a 
consequence  of  frequent  associations.  The  way  in  which  ex- 
periences are  registered  determines  largely  the  manner  of  their 
recall. 

Necessity  of  Making  Associations  Purposely. — In  order  to 
have  things  recalled  it  will  not  do  to  trust  to  chance  associa- 
tions that  are  expected  to  be  found  because  things  may  be 
near  together  in  space  or  time.  Every  day  illustrations  may 
be  given  to  show  that  mere  chance  contiguity  in  space  or  in 
time  is  not  sufficient  to  produce  an  association  in  the  mind. 
A  class  of  forty  were  asked  to  tell  the  number  of  the  class- 
room in  which  they  assembled  three  times  every  week.  Not 
one  was  able  to  answer  correctly.  They  were  asked  to  draw 
a  dog's  foot  and  a  hen's  track  as  they  appeared  in  snow  or 
in  mud.  The  drawings  were  far  from  accurate,  some  draw- 
ing three  toes  and  some  five  toes  for  the  hen's  track.  These 
were  objects  of  frequent  casual  observation,  but  because  no 
attention  had  been  paid  to  them,  no  association  had  been 
formed.  That  the  associations  had  not  been  formed  was  no 
discredit,  but  it  shows  us  that  in  all  teaching  associations 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       199 

must  not  be  left  to  chance.  By  questions,  by  analysis,  by 
careful  explanations,  and  by  requiring  concentrated  thinking, 
pupils  must  be  led  to  form  definite  associations  and  not  be 
passive  recipients  of  isolated  facts.  Careful  questioning  pro- 
duces new  ideas,  new  combinations  of  thought,  i.  e.,  new 
associations,  thus  increasing  the  number  of  suggestions  and 
the  probability  of  recall. 

When  a  given  Idea  has  been  associated  with  several  others, 
it  is  of  interest  and  importance  to  know  which  will  be  recalled 
when  it  comes  before  the  mind.  It  is  of  more  immediate  in- 
terest to  know  how  to  weld  associations  so  that  the  experi- 
ences can  best  be  retained  and  recalled  when  needed.  Al- 
though the  stream  of  thought  is  to  a  large  extent  determined 
by  chance  associations,  many  desirable  associations  are  not 
made  without  conscious  effort.  The  child,  for  example,  gains 
in  a  desultory  manner  many  Ideas  about  nature,  art,  social 
laws,  and  economic  relations  from  his  environment.  The 
knowledge  thus  gained  is  sometimes  so  much  overestimated 
that  it  is  not  deemed  necessary  to  study  these  facts  and  phe- 
nomena In  a  systematic  way.  While  environment  is  exceed- 
ingly potent  In  shaping  one's  ideas,  we  must  not  forget  that 
there  are  many  with  eyes  who  see  not,  with  ears  who  hear 
not.  The  country  boy  with  a  vast  wealth  of  natural  phenom- 
ena all  about  him  is  too  often  completely  deaf  and  blind  to 
their  richness.  It  is  not  at  all  uncommon  to  find  bright  coun- 
try boys  of  16  who  do  not  know  as  many  birds  and  animals 
and  trees  and  flowers  and  varieties  of  rocks  and  soils  as  the 
city  high-school  boy  who  early  in  the  grades  has  been  taught 
to  observe  those  things.  The  country  boy  has  wonderful  pos- 
sibilities, but  is  often  without  wise  guidance.  Hence,  In  order 
to  produce  associations,  the  more  purposeful  the  effort  the 
better  the  associations  will  be  made. 

Vividness. — Events  which  have  come  to  us  In  so  striking  a 
manner  as  to  transfix  the  attention  are  indelibly  impressed 
upon  the  mind.  An  accident,  the  first  sight  of  the  great 
ocean,  the  first  trip  to  a  metropolis,  a  visit  to  Mammoth  Cave, 
a  descent  Into  a  coal-mine,  a  balloon  ascension,  a  fright  from 


200    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

an  encounter  with  wild  beasts,  or  the  railroad  accident  can 
never  be  forgotten  by  the  one  who  has  had  the  experience. 
Similarly,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  be  put  into  possession  of 
certain  facts  in  such  a  way  that  they  will  never  be  effaced. 
The  demonstrations  in  physics  performed  by  a  certain  pro- 
fessor came  back  to  me  in  great  detail  after  the  lapse  of  a 
score  of  years.  The  first  wonders  of  experimental  psychology 
came  to  me  so  impressively  that  I  could  tell  every  detail  of 
the  experiments  performed  many  years  ago.  Is  it  not  a  truer 
function  of  teaching  to  open  up  the  wonders  of  the  universe, 
both  of  nature  and  of  art,  than  to  drill  a  traditional  set  of 
facts  into  pupils'  minds  ? 

Ideas  should  be  made  as  vivid  as  possible  in  order  to  estab- 
lish associations.  The  advertiser  seeks  to  arrest  the  atten- 
tion and  compel  the  mind  to  contemplate  the  thing  adver- 
tised. In  order  to  do  this,  striking  pictures,  brilHant  colors, 
bizarre  figures  and  situations  are  employed.  Besides  being 
designed  to  compel  attention,  there  is  an  attempt  to  set  forth 
the  most  tempting  features  of  the  advertised  wares.  Enough 
is  given  to  make  us  curious  to  know  more.  The  good  teacher 
is  a  good  advertiser.  Ideas  are  presented  in  striking  ways 
and  at  opportune  times  so  as  to  stimulate  curiosity. 

Attention  and  Association. — Though  the  nervous  system  of 
the  child  is  plastic  and  his  senses  keen,  yet  the  majority  of  his 
perceptions  leave  little  trace.  This  is  because  he  cannot  con- 
centrate all  his  forces  upon  the  facts  under  consideration,  and 
because  his  ideas  do  not  sprout  out  and  become  related  to  all 
other  germane  ideas.  Attention  not  only  means  the  ability 
to  focus  the  mind  on  a  point,  excluding  extraneous  ideas,  but 
also  the  ability  to  secure  a  grasp  on  everything  that  can  con- 
tribute. It  is  like  the  abihties  of  a  strong  executive.  He 
must  not  only  be  able  to  work  hard  and  effectively  himself, 
but  he  must  be  able  to  marshal  great  forces  to  exert  their  ut- 
most aid  in  the  same  direction.  In  a  great  act  of  attention 
the  mind  is  not  merely  fixed  in  one  direction,  oblivious  to  all 
else,  but  it  is  searching  this  way  and  that  to  discover  and 
establish  all  possible  relations.     The  child's  inability  to  attend 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       201 

then  is  explained  largely  through  his  lack  of  apperceptive 
material.  Therefore  when  we  speak  of  attention  as  a  factor 
in  association,  we  mean  that  associations  are  deepened  and 
new  ones  formed,  thus  increasing  the  possibility  of  recall. 
The  lowest  sort  of  attention  is  employed  in  strengthening 
mechanical  associations,  the  higher  in  establishing  thoughtful 
ones.  The  former  is  necessary  in  teaching  the  child  to  recog- 
nize word-forms,  to  spell,  to  fix  the  addition  table  and  the 
multiplication  table.  As  long  as  he  is  swaying  about,  look- 
ing out  of  the  window,  or  counting  his  marbles,  he  cannot  fix 
the  word-forms.  He  must  be  brought  to  see  with  sufficient 
"(at)  tension"  to  effect  a  change  in  his  cerebral  ganglia.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  order  to  register  ineffaceably  algebraic 
principles  or  scientific  truths,  the  attention  must  command 
all  the  individual  ideas  in  such  a  way  that  they  are  appre- 
hended and  comprehended,  until  every  relation  is  established. 
To  accomplish  this,  each  new  fact  must  be  scrutinized  and 
made  to  fit  into  the  system  necessitated  by  all  the  kindred 
facts.  This  relating  activity  is  the  higher  form  of  attention 
and  insures  more  valuable  associations. 

When  there  is  an  attempt  to  make  artificial  associations  in 
a  mechanical  way,  as  in  learning  foreign  languages,  the  names 
and  locations  of  various  geographical  features,  or  a  series  of 
historical  data,  there  is  often  no  interest  in  the  process,  and 
the  results  either  become  confused  or  soon  disappear.  Experi- 
ences do  not  become  deep  and  permanent  without  undivided 
attention.  Genuine  attention  is  only  possible  when  there  is 
a  full  headway  of  interest. 

Frequently  insufficient  time  is  given  to  make  associations 
permanent.  A  flash-light  may  disclose  an  interesting  scene, 
but  before  the  mind  has  had  time  to  dwell  upon  its  contents 
it  is  passed  by  for  another  one.  The  succession  of  views  be- 
comes confused.  Similarly  with  the  multiplicity  of  things 
which  often  engage  the  school  child's  attention.  He  flits 
from  study  to  study  and  from  topic  to  topic  so  rapidly  that 
no  idea  has  a  chance  to  be  recalled  or  contemplated.  When 
we  consider  the  number  of  topics  that  a  child  is  frequently 


202    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

expected  to  learn  in  history  or  geography  in  a  year,  the 
surprise  is  not  that  he  forgets  some  but  that  he  retains  so 
many. 

Repetition  of  what  has  been  learned  is  an  important  factor, 
especially  in  mechanical  memory.  The  association  tracks  are 
to  be  deepened,  and  the  oftener  the  ideas  are  recalled  in  the 
same  order  the  better  the  retention.  Here  again  the  psychol- 
ogy of  advertising  has  abundant  suggestion.  No  one  can 
help  knowing  the  particular  merits  of  Ivory  Soap,  Pears* 
Soap,  Rubifoam,  Peruna,  Walter  Baker's  Cocoa,  Swift's  Pre- 
mium Hams,  or  Force.  They  have  been  inescapable.  We 
encounter  their  compelling  pictures  and  persuasive  phrases  in 
every  newspaper  and  magazine.  We  cannot  turn  a  street  cor- 
ner or  glance  out  of  a  car-window  or  even  withdraw  our  glance 
to  the  car  interiors  without  encountering  some  of  these  ads. 
In  season  and  out  of  season,  whether  we  will  or  no,  we  are 
bound  to  meet  them. 

The  teacher  may  well  take  a  hint.  Some  of  the  arts  most 
worth  striving  for  can  be  taught  by  the  same  process.  Take 
language,  for  example.  In  no  other  way  can  the  child  ever 
develop  correct  speech  except  by  hearing  it,  seeing  it,  and 
feeling  its  power  during  every  minute  of  the  school-day,  and 
properly  in  the  home.  The  child  who  hears  correct  speech 
only  in  the  language  class  will  never  acquire  it.  Morals  and 
manners  must  be  taught  in  the  same  fashion.  If  good  exam- 
ples are  only  advertised  on  Sunday,  the  intervening  week-days 
will  obliterate  all  traces. 

The  Observance  of  Natural  Relations  is  always  an  excellent 
means  of  fixing  associations.  This  is  true  because  when  once 
the  relations  are  observed  the  coexistent  factors  are  frequently 
brought  before  consciousness.  Such  phenomena  as  thunder 
and  lightning,  warm  weather  and  growing  vegetation,  cooling 
atmosphere  and  condensation  of  moisture,  change  of  tempera- 
ture with  change  of  thermometric  reading,  being  casually  re- 
lated, become  easily  impressed  upon  the  mind  when  once  the 
relationship  is  observed. 

However,  the  fact  that  relationships  exist  between  objec- 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       203 

tive  things  Is  no  guarantee  of  their  being  observed  and  re- 
corded together.  For  example,  the  relation  between  forests 
and  rainfall  has  only  recently  been  observed;  the  circulation 
of  the  blood  Is  a  new  discovery ;  the  bacterial  theory  of  disease 
not  a  half-century  old.  A  pupil  would  be  a  long  time  dis- 
covering the  relations  between  varieties  of  soils  and  adaptable 
crops,  though  when  once  understood  they  become  indlssolubly 
connected.  Just  so  with  multitudes  of  facts  In  geography, 
science,  and  history. 

The  Import  of  this  Is  to  emphasize  the  necessity  of  forming 
systematic,  logical,  and  causal  relations  among  series  of  facts 
rather  than  to  depend  upon  artificial  associations.  The  nat- 
ural relations  are  more  apt  to  be  forced  upon  the  mind  repeat- 
edly. Too  much  of  geography  teaching  and  history  teaching 
is  made  to  depend  upon  absolutely  mechanical  associations, 
when  everything  could  be  presented  In  a  connected  series  of 
thoughtful  relations.  There  are  some  things  desirable  to 
learn  which  must  be  largely  Isolated,  but  the  majority  of  all 
knowledge,  whether  In  school  or  out  of  it,  can  be  so  grouped 
as  to  become  woven  into  logical  relations.  People's  names 
have  no  logical  relation  to  their  possessors,  but  when  we  come 
to  know  the  Individual  thoroughly,  his  habits,  his  tempera- 
ment, his  home,  his  associates,  and  his  capacity,  the  name 
becomes  so  complexly  associated  with  the  individual  that  a 
multitude  of  suggesting  strings  may  be  pulled,  any  one  of 
which  will  recall  the  right  name.  The  case  Is  far  different 
with  the  child  in  learning  the  list  of  capes  on  the  coast  of 
America,  or  the  boundaries  of  each  of  the  states.  In  these 
cases  there  Is  only  one  sort  of  association,  and  that  purely 
artificial  and  mechanical.  When  the  child  learns  rules  In 
arithmetic  or  grammar  without  comprehending  them,  the 
associations  are  purely  arbitrary  and  mechanical.  When  we 
shall  have  become  entirely  free  from  such  atrocities  committed 
in  the  name  of  education,  a  day  of  rejoicing  may  be  proclaimed. 

Recognition  of  Varieties  of  Memory  Functions. — The  fact 
that  different  individuals  have  different  types  of  memory  sug- 
gests the  desirability  of  recognizing  these  Individual  charac- 


204    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

teristics  in  memory  training.  These  should  be  considered  in 
two  ways.  First,  the  one  with  a  special  gift  in  any  direction 
should  know  how  to  utilize  it;  and,  second,  the  one  who  is  spe- 
cially defective  in  any  direction  should  be  helped  to  remedy 
the  defect,  if  possible.  Use  as  many  senses  as  possible  in 
acquiring  ideas.  We  should  remember  that  knowledge  is 
very  complex,  and  that  a  variety  of  experiences  enter  into  the 
real  and  complete  knowledge  of  every  concept  we  possess. 
For  example,  the  complete  knowledge  of  that  classical  fruit, 
the  orange,  includes  taste  ideas,  those  of  smell,  touch,  weight, 
color.  In  the  case  of  this  particular  fruit,  most  of  us  have 
received  the  actual  primary  experiences.  But  in  how  many 
cases  are  we  satisfied  with  getting  only  a  single  set  of  sensa- 
tions, and  then  expect  that  all  the  other  factors  will  be  repre- 
sented through  the  fiat  currency  of  words  that  we  employ ! 
The  druggist  who  did  not  employ  several  senses  in  acquiring 
his  knowledge  of  drugs  would  be  a  dangerous  person  to  com- 
pound medicine  for  us.  The  successful  one  relies  not  on  sight 
alone,  but  upon  the  touch,  the  odor,  the  consistency,  the 
weight  and  sound.  Chemistry  used  to  be  taught  from  a  book 
by  learning  names,  symbols,  and  formulas,  without  ever  see- 
ing a  compound.  By  such  teaching  a  pupil  could  not  tell 
sulphuric  acid  from  kerosene,  or  quartz  from  meerschaum. 

Spelling  is  a  process  in  which  sight,  hearing,  the  muscular 
movements  of  the  arm  and  the  fingers,  muscular  movements 
of  the  vocal  cords,  the  tactile  sensation  in  the  hand,  joints, 
and  vocal  cords,  all  may  and  should  enter.  Unfortunately, 
unpsychological  faddists  successively  accentuate  some  one 
or  other  of  these  factors  to  the  neglect  of  all  others.  Each 
faddist  is  partly  in  the  right,  but  all  are  in  the  wrong.  Ideal 
results  cannot  be  secured  in  this  useful  art  until  the  ear  is 
trained  to  hear  the  syllables  and  other  component  elements, 
to  hear  the  exact  pronunciation  as  a  whole,  and  the  succession 
of  sounds  in  uttering  the  letters  and  syllables;  until  the  eye  is 
trained  to  see  the  word  as  a  whole,  and  in  various  analyses; 
until  the  muscles  of  the  vocal  apparatus  are  habituated  to 
the  utterance  of  the  various  combinations;  until  the  hand 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       205 

and  arm  have  formed  definite  and  ready  associations  of 
movements;  and,  finally,  not  until  there  is  a  perfect  harmony 
and  co-ordination  among  all  the  various  processes.  Then 
only  can  the  spelling  of  any  combination  be  said  to  be  prop- 
erly mastered. 

Note  should  also  be  made  of  the  fact  that  impressions  are 
not  received  through  a  given  sense  equally  well  at  all  times. 
For  example,  the  ear  is  used  to  interpret  language  symbols 
several  years  before  the  eye.  In  racial  development  the  ear 
was  for  ages  the  only  interpreter  of  language  symbols.  This 
should  be  recognized  in  teaching.  Early  education  should  be 
almost  wholly  oral.  The  child's  language  expression  should 
be  vocal;  instead,  he  is  often  plunged  into  reading  as  a  means 
of  learning,  and  the  hand  is  set  to  pen-wagging  as  a  means  of 
expression.  Halleck  tells  us  {Education  of  the  Central  Nervous 
System^  pp.  48-54)  of  a  class  that  had  struggled  hard  and  long 
to  interpret  visually  "As  You  Like  It."  But  they  failed 
utterly  to  grasp  it.  It  was  finally  read  to  them  and  the 
change  was  marvellous.  No  greater  pedagogical  heresy  is 
perpetuated  at  the  present  time  than  the  atrocious  method  of 
instructing  little  children  in  singing  by  note.  Instead  of  giv- 
ing them  an  opportunity  to  hear  sweet  melodies  and  then 
encouraging  them,  through  imitation,  to  burst  forth  into 
songs  of  praise  and  gladness,  they  are  required  to  read  a 
strange,  meaningless  Chinese  puzzle.  The  little  singing  they 
learn,  which  is  indeed  a  diminutive  quantity,  is  really  gained 
through  imitation  of  what  they  hear. 

Interest  and  Memory. — Joseph  Cook  is  said  to  have  written 
in  effect:  "Interest  is  the  mother  of  attention,  and  attention 
is  the  mother  of  memory;  if  you  would  secure  memory,  you 
must  first  catch  the  mother  and  the  grandmother."  The  boy 
who  has  no  interest  in  what  he  does,  but  goes  through  his 
tasks  in  a  purely  perfunctory  way,  does  not  acquire  much, 
and  retains  that  little  poorly.  The  boy  who  blunders  in  his 
arithmetic,  forgets  how  to  spell,  and  seems  to  be  unable  to 
remember  his  geography  may  be,  and  probably  is,  one  who 
can  remember  every  detail  of  all  the  season's  football  games. 


2o6        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

He  can  name  every  player  who  took  part  in  each,  remember 
all  the  "star  plays,"  the  fouls,  the  bad  decisions  of  the  um- 
pire, the  different  formations  that  were  tried;  in  fact,  like  the 
politician,  his  fund  of  knowledge  of  certain  sorts  seem  inex- 
haustible. 

I  once  had  a  boy  in  school  who  was  called  a  dunce  by  many 
of  his  teachers,  but  who  knew  more  about  birds  than  all 
his  teachers  combined.  Strangely  enough,  too,  most  of  his 
teachers  had  never  discovered  this  interest.  A  little  judicious 
consideration  of  this  boy's  interests  which  he  brought  with 
him  furnished  a  key  which  unlocked  other  interests.  He  did 
splendid  work  in  nature  study,  his  arithmetic  work  became 
the  strongest  in  his  class,  and,  in  fact,  his  work  in  all  lines  was 
second  to  no  other's.  The  only  thing  he  had  needed  was  an 
enlistment  of  his  interest.  By  interesting  myself  in  things 
that  appealed  to  him,  I  was  able  to  direct  his  attention  to 
other  things  which  I  thought  he  should  know.  The  child  who 
is  kept  after  school  to  do  work  as  a  penalty  remembers  well 
enough  his  emotions  on  the  occasion,  but  forgets  speedily  the 
lesson  imposed.  The  mind  must  be  in  the  right  attitude,  and 
be  a  willing  party  to  the  operation.  The  mind  that  is  not 
aglow  with  enthusiasm  for  the  task  in  hand  continually  wan- 
ders away  to  more  alluring  fields,  attention  is  scattered,  and 
mental  acquisitions  are  vague,  confused,  and  fleeting.  Irk- 
someness  and  superficiality  of  acquisition  are  natural  accom- 
paniments. 

Clearness  of  Ideas. — To  record  ideas  so  that  they  may  be 
permanent,  and  also  that  they  may  be  recalled  readily,  it  is 
necessary  to  comprehend  them  clearly.  The  majority  of  ideas 
which  come  to  our  minds  are  so  vague  and  poorly  defined 
that  they  make  little  impression  and  are  soon  lost.  It  is  a 
common  fault  of  teachers  to  lack  lucidity  in  explanation,  and 
text-books  are  generally  very  abstract.  Limited  space,  to  a 
certain  degree,  necessitates  this  abstractness  of  text-books, 
but  it  is  the  teacher's  business  to  be  concrete  and  clear  him- 
self, and  to  render  condensed  abstractions  of  the  text-books 
clear  and  comprehensive,  when  necessary,  by  copious  illustra- 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       207 

tions.  In  the  lower  grades  most  text-books  should  serve  as 
summaries  of  material  secured  from  real  presentation  by  the 
teacher  and  from  concrete  collateral  material  gathered  from 
necessary  books,  experiments,  and  excursions. 

Comprehension  vs.  Apprehension. — The  foregoing  consid- 
eration of  memory  should  teach  us  much  with  reference  to 
modes  of  attempting  to  secure  lasting  impressions  of  various 
schoolroom  lessons.  According  to  the  character  of  the  ma- 
terial, some  should  be  memorized  mechanically,  while  in  other 
lessons  no  attempt  should  be  made  to  secure  automatic  repro- 
duction of  fixed  forms.  In  lessons  where  content  is  to  be 
memorized,  the  efforts  of  the  learner  should  be  centred  upon 
mastering  the  ideas  contained.  The  attempt  should  be  to 
understand,  to  know,  and  to  let  memory  take  care  of  itself. 
That  which  is  apprehended  in  perception,  comprehended 
through  apperception,  and  woven  into  the  warp  and  woof  of 
mind  through  manifold  associations  will  be  retained  without 
recourse  to  artificial  memories.  McLellan  says  (McLellan 
and  Dewey,  Applied  Psychology,  p.  95) : 

Do  not  aim  at  training  memory  directly,  but  indirectly,  through 
the  training  of  the  apperceiving  powers.  The  attitude  of  the  pupil's 
mind  should  be:  I  must  perceive  this  just  as  it  is  and  in  all  its  bearings; 
not,  I  must  remember  this.  If  the  original  perception,  in  other  words, 
is  what  it  should  be,  accurate,  comprehensive,  and  independent,  mem- 
ory may  be  left  very  largely  to  take  care  of  itself.  For  the  first  step 
in  remembering  anything  is  to  get  it  within  the  mind,  and  appercep- 
tion is  just  this  getting  it  within  the  mind. 

A  careful  consideration  of  the  lessons  to  be  taught,  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  just  what  is  to  be  acquired,  and  how 
it  is  to  be  acquired,  is  of  prime  moment  in  the  teacher's  daily 
plans.  Whether  a  given  page  is  merely  a  scaffolding  which 
should  form  a  setting  for  the  real  structure,  or  whether  it  is 
a  part  of  the  structure  itself,  should  be  clearly  distinguished. 
Oftentimes  many  paragraphs  must  be  included  merely  for  the 
sake  of  a  proper  background  for  the  picture  which  is  to  be 
discovered.  They  are  necessary  to  complete  understanding, 
but  there  is  no  necessity  for  centring  the  attention  upon 


2o8         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

them.  But  the  sahent  facts,  principles,  and  laws  should  be 
focalized,  crossed  and  recrossed,  viewed  telescopically,  micro- 
scopically, with  the  physical  eye,  and  through  the  eye  of  imag- 
ination. Finally,  through  the  highest  processes  of  abstrac- 
tion and  symbolization,  the  concepts  should  be  comprehended 
in  all  their  fulness  without  recourse  to  the  elementary  means 
necessary  to  the  first  fundamental  ideas. 

Modes  of  Recall. — The  function  of  recall  in  the  learning 
process  is  of  great  pedagogical  interest.  The  recitation  has 
for  one  function  the  recall  of  ideas  for  the  purpose  of  fixing 
them  in  memory  more  firmly.  Under  what  conditions  should 
recall  take  place  so  as  to  make  learning  the  most  sure  and 
economical  ?  Ebbinghaus  ( Ueber  das  Geddchtnis,  Leipsic, 
1885)  studied  the  matter  experimentally,  in  connection  with 
learning  nonsense  syllables.  He  found  that  if  the  list  con- 
tained several  syllables  one  reading  would  suffice,  when  the  list 
contained  twelve  syllables  it  took  sixteen  repetitions.  Six- 
teen syllables  required  thirty  repetitions.  This  suggested  the 
desirability  of  short  lessons,  especially  with  children.  After 
a  lapse  of  tw-enty  minutes  he  found  that  58  per  cent  as  much 
work  was  required  to  recommit  as  to  commit  a  new  list. 
After  an  hour  the  further  loss  by  forgetting  was  small.  Col- 
vin  says,  however,  that  in  the  case  of  thought  processes,  as 
opposed  to  forms  of  expression,  when  once  the  idea  is  learned, 
recall  twenty-four  hours  after  learning  is  as  accurate  as  imme- 
diate recall.  This  suggests  the  importance  of  frequent  drills 
upon  things  that  are  to  be  learned  verbatim,  but  the  lack  of 
such  necessity  when  dealing  with  ideas.  For  example,  the 
spelling  lesson  and  elementary  foreign  languages  require  fre- 
quent repetition,  while  the  history  and  nature-study  lessons 
should  be  dealt  with  as  ideas,  and  will  not  require  much  or 
frequent  repetition  in  learning.  The  Germans  recognize  these 
principles  in  a  practical  way  in  the  organization  of  their  school 
curricula.  Latin  and  other  foreign  languages  are  given  every 
day,  and  sometimes  twice  a  day  in  the  initial  stages,  while 
history,  geography,  and  nature  study  are  given  about  twdce 
a  week. 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       209 

Kind  of  Memory  to  Employ  in  a  Given  Case. — It  is  also 
important  to  know  whether  the  form  of  expression  in  a  given 
lesson  should  be  learned  exactly.  There  are  some  things  that 
should  be  learned  exactly,  that  should  be  learned  verbatim. 
In  these  the  form  as  well  as  the  content  is  important;  in  fact, 
in  some  cases,  without  the  exact  form  the  content  would  be 
largely  valueless.  Among  the  things  which  should  be  firmly 
fixed  in  the  mechanical  memory  are  the  following:  The  addi- 
tion, subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division  tables;  certain 
tables  in  denominate  numbers;  a  rich  vocabulary  of  words  in 
the  mother  tongue;  vocabularies  in  foreign  languages;  the 
spelling  of  all  of  one's  usable  words  in  the  vernacular;  some 
mathematical  formulas  that  are  constantly  applied  in  higher 
mathematics;  paradigms  in  ancient  languages  or  other  foreign 
languages,  read  only;  many  gems  of  literature;  occasional 
definitions;  principles  and  laws. 

Except  in  the  case  of  spelling,  tables  of  the  fundamental 
operations  in  arithmetic,  and  certain  parts  of  vocabulary 
learning,  the  processes  need  not  be  devoid  of  thoughtful  asso- 
ciations. The  multiplication  table  and  much  EngHsh  spell- 
ing are,  however,  as  mechanical  and  content-less  as  "ickery- 
irey,  ooery-ann" — and  must  be  learned  by  point-blank 
mechanical  associations.  In  such  cases  repetition  is  about 
the  only  way  to  establish  the  mechanical  bonds  of  association. 
In  other  cases  admitting  of  analysis  and  thoughtful  considera- 
tion, the  content  should  be  thoroughly  mastered  before  at- 
tempting to  impress  the  form  of  expression  on  the  mind. 
This  should  be  the  invariable  rule,  for  children  easily  focus 
upon  learning  the  expression  before  comprehending  its  signifi- 
cance. The  meaning  of  all  generalizations  to  be  memorized 
should  be  taught  indirectly,  thus  coming  to  the  concentrated 
statement  last.  Joshua  Fitch  expressed  the  matter  in  a  para- 
graph almost  worthy  of  being  memorized  verbatim  by  every 
teacher.     He  wrote: 

When  the  object  is  to  have  thoughts,  facts,  reasonings  reproduced, 
seek  to  have  them  reproduced  in  the  pupil's  words.  Do  not  set  the 
faculty  of  mere  verbal  memory  to  work.     But  when  the  words  them- 


2IO         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

selves  in  which  a  fact  is  embodied  have  some  special  fitness  or  beauty 
of  their  own,  when  they  represent  some  scientific  datum  or  central 
truth,  which  could  not  otherwise  be  so  well  expressed,  then  see  that 
the  form  as  well  as  the  expression  is  learned  by  heart. 

Analyze  Material. — In  trying  to  remember  or  in  teaching 
pupils  to  remember,  one  of  the  first  things  to  do  is  to  analyze 
the  material  to  determine  its  character  and  the  purpose  in 
learning.  Each  type  of  material  must  be  learned  in  a  differ- 
ent fashion.  Oftentimes  pupils  are  assigned  a  lesson,  and, 
believing  that  they  will  be  required  to  recite  the  text  verba- 
tim, they  try  to  memorize  it  in  a  mechanical  way.  Without 
trying  to  comprehend  it,  they  repeat  it  over  and  over  again. 
The  words  thus  learned  are  soon  forgotten,  and  with  the  result 
that  they  have  neither  the  words  nor  the  ideas. 

After  comprehension  of  the  meaning  some  tables  of  denomi- 
nate numbers,  definitions  in  arithmetic,  grammar,  geometry, 
algebra  should  be  thoroughly  memorized.  The  statement  of 
theorems  in  geometry  as  given  in  the  text-books  can  hardly 
be  improved  upon  and  should  be  memorized  verbatim  after 
understanding  their  meaning.  The  demonstrations  should 
never  be  memorized.  Whenever  the  object  is  to  acquire  some 
fact,  law,  principle,  or  process  that  must  be  used  continually 
in  the  same  way,  the  form  as  well  as  the  substance  should  be 
learned.  It  is  also  an  excellent  plan  to  have  pupils  learn  ver- 
batim many  proverbs,  short  poems,  and  worthy  artistic  prose 
expressions  which  epitomize  wise  sayings  of  the  great  thinkers 
of  all  time.  Such  expressions  grow  in  significance  as  the  years 
go  by  and  become  richer  and  richer  in  meaning.  Most  chil- 
dren can  acquire  much  in  this  way  without  difficulty. 

On  the  other  hand,  most  of  the  knowledge  acquired  in 
everyday  life  need  not  become  a  part  of  habitual  action.  It 
is  to  become  a  part  of  the  background  of  consciousness  and 
the  exact  record  is  unimportant.  We  need  simply  to  appre- 
hend it,  but  not  to  fashion  it  into  forms  of  conduct. 

Selective  Memory. — The  obvious  suggestion  which  grows 
out  of  the  foregoing  analysis  is  that  in  economical  learning, 
instead  of  trying  to  memorize  details  we  should  select  the  sig- 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       211 

nificant  factors  and  large  concepts  and  try  to  fix  these  in 
mind  and  discard  the  mass  of  details  which  has  merely  served 
as  a  scaffolding  in  building  the  real  structure.  After  thor- 
oughly mastering  that  which  is  to  be  learned,  then  try  to 
recall  the  large  concepts  and  ideas.  Do  not  bother  with  the 
details.  If  the  details  were  once  mastered  and  incorporated 
in  the  large  ideas,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  filling  in  details 
if  necessary.  Be  sure,  however,  that  you  really  have  the 
ideas  and  not  merely  some  catch  words  and  phrases  that 
stand  for  the  ideas. 

Before  starting  to  read  a  chapter  or  topic  it  is  well  to  try 
to  determine  before  opening  the  book  what  subtopics  and 
points  are  discussed.  Try  also  to  think  how  you  would  treat 
the  topic.  Then  open  the  book,  glance  through  the  topic  as 
a  whole  to  see  how  the  author  has  organized  it.  After  that 
read  each  paragraph  or  section  carefully,  stopping  at  the 
end  to  see  if  you  comprehend.  Difficult  points  must  be  dwelt 
upon  and  studied  intensively.  Go  through  the  entire  chapter 
in  that  way.  Then  put  the  book  aside  and  see  if  you  can 
state  the  topics  treated.  Often  it  is  well  to  actually  write  an 
outline  statement  of  the  main  points.  Then  concentrate  upon 
each  one  and  see  if  you  are  thoroughly  convinced  that  you 
understand  the  points  completely.  Some  points  need  not  be 
dwelt  upon  long,  because  you  have  a  consciousness  that  you 
fully  comprehend  them,  that  they  are  very  similar  to  some 
previously  learned  points,  or  that  they  are  relatively  unim- 
portant ones.  Should  you  come  to  a  topic  that  seems  hazy, 
entirely  obscure,  or  one  that  should  be  fixed  firmly,  centre 
upon  that  one.  Generally  there  are  only  a  few  such  points  in 
a  given  lesson.  Much  of  the  material  is  for  the  purpose  of 
leading  up  to  the  main  principle  or  to  give  a  general  setting, 
or  it  reviews  much  that  has  gone  before. 

Importance  of  the  Recitation. — Ordinarily  the  recitation  is 
thought  of  as  a  means  of  giving  the  teacher  an  opportunity  to 
find  out  how  faithfully  and  well  the  pupil  has  prepared  the 
assigned  lesson — a  chance  to  square  accounts.  There  is  some- 
thing to  that  from  the  moral  side,  but  that  is  not  the  main 


212    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

purpose  of  reciting.  The  main  value  is  (a)  because  it  gives 
opportunity  for  expression,  and  (b)  because  it  reveals  to  the 
learner  his  own  lacks.  A  noted  lecturer  once  said:  "I  lecture 
not  to  enlighten  others,  but  to  clear  up  my  own  ideas." 

The  recitation  reveals  what  has  been  learned  and  what  has 
not  been  learned.  Socrates  considered  that  the  first  step  in 
gaining  wisdom  was  a  recognition  of  one's  own  ignorance. 
''From  impression  to  expression"  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
maxims  of  modern  psychology.  The  expression  tends  to 
clear  up  and  fix  ideas. 

Again,  one's  attitude  in  studying  is  wonderfully  modified 
by  the  consciousness  that  what  is  being  studied  will  be  called 
for.  If  one  were  absolutely  certain  that  he  were  to  be  called 
upon  to  repeat  every  fact  acquired,  the  results  would  be  vastly 
different  from  what  they  would  be  if  one  were  absolutely  sure 
of  not  being  called  upon  to  recite.  Students  should  form  the 
habit  of  reciting  to  others  what  they  have  gone  over  before 
going  to  class.  They  should  also  frequently  write  out  ab- 
stracts and  try  to  form  concise  generalizations  of  topics  read 
or  heard  discussed. 

Be  severe  with  yourself.  Do  not  be  content  with  laziness 
or  half  mastery.  Difficulties  slid  over  will  surely  be  encoun- 
tered as  stumbling-blocks  later  on.  Ask  yourself  questions 
about  the  meaning  and  the  relations  to  other  materials  pre- 
viously studied.  Try  to  think  what  questions  the  teacher 
might  ask  and  be  sure  to  answer  the  questions  satisfactorily 
to  yourself.  Be  mercilessly  critical  with  yourself.  It  is  far 
better  for  you  to  discover  faulty  learning  in  yourself  than  it  is 
to  have  it  discovered  and  recorded  by  the  teacher.  Many  a 
pupil  might  have  passed  a  good  examination  instead  of  one 
full  of  flaws,  inaccuracies,  and  omissions  if  he  had  only  stuck 
to  the  lesson  until  he  had  mastered  it. 

After  going  over  the  lesson  as  suggested,  try  to  express  a 
part  or  all  of  it  to  some  one  else.  Explain  it  to  your  room- 
mate and  let  him  probe  with  critical  questions.  Be  as  defi- 
nite and  as  accurate  as  possible,  even  to  details.  Keep  in 
mind  the  probability  all  the  time  that  some  one  will  ask  you 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       213 

to  express  the  knowledge  acquired.  If  you  have  a  subcon- 
sciousness that  you  are  absolutely  certain  to  be  called  upon 
to  recite,  you  learn  in  a  far  more  thorough  manner  than  if  you 
feel  pretty  certain  that  your  turn  will  not  come  that  day. 
The  one  who  figures  on  escaping  recitation  is  storing  away 
vague  ideas  which  are  very  elusive  about  examination  time. 

Regular  Study  Schedule. — In  school  organization  we  have 
properly  given  much  attention  to  securing  definite  recitation 
periods.  But  little  has  been  done  to  provide  definite  and 
regular  study  periods.  If  pupils  would  only  form  regular, 
adequate  habits  of  study,  and  learn  how  to  study,  the  recita- 
tion would  be  largely  unnecessary,  or  at  any  rate  it  could  be 
utilized  in  a  far  different  manner  from  that  which  is  usually 
necessary.  A  definite  study  programme  should  be  arranged 
and  adhered  to.  Only  the  most  exceptional  circumstances 
should  be  allowed  to  interfere.  The  very  habit  of  taking  up 
a  given  task  at  the  scheduled  hour  is  one  that  is  exceedingly 
valuable.  A  habit  of  procrastination  begets  slothfulness. 
Too  many  persons  have  revised  the  old  adage  to  read:  "Do 
not  do  to-day  what  can  be  put  off  until  to-morrow."  The 
regular  study  schedule  should  apply  to  school  work  done  at 
home  as  well  as  that  done  at  school. 

Supervised  and  Directed  Study. — Much  energy  in  study  is 
often  dissipated  because  pupils  do  not  know  what  is  to  be 
learned — they  do  not  know  what  to  concentrate  upon.  Clear- 
ness and  definiteness  in  assigning  lessons,  a  due  consideration 
of  the  apperceptive  data  already  possessed,  and  proper  con- 
ditions for  study  would  do  more  for  the  recitations  than  any 
patent  methods  of  questioning  or  conducting  recitations.  Pu- 
pils need  to  be  taught  how  to  study  in  order  to  accomplish  it 
economically  and  efficiently.  Many  of  our  best  educators  are 
coming  to  insist  upon  due  attention  to  the  proper  assignment 
of  work.  A  considerable  part  of  many  recitation  periods 
should  be  devoted  to  planning  methods  of  attacking  the  new 
problems.  Too  many  teachers  regard  the  class  period  as  a 
time  for  pumping  the  pupil  in  order  to  square  accounts.  Not 
infrequently  they  pump  from  a  very  dry  well.     Extreme  mis- 


214    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

interpretation  of  the  Socratic  method  of  questioning  has  led 
teachers  to  beheve  that  they  must  not  instruct  or  teach,  but 
merely  question  and  record.  Their  greatest  function  is  to 
teach  and  to  guide  in  methods  of  acquisition.     Button  says: 

Supervise  the  study  periods.  The  teacher  who  asks  his  pupils  to 
study,  and  then  proceeds  to  write  letters  or  make  up  his  reports,  is  not 
only  losing  an  opportunity  but  is  violating  his  trust.  He  should  be 
at  the  service  of  his  pupils,  passing  around  from  one  to  the  other,  giv- 
ing the  needed  word  of  advice  or  encouragement,  making  sure  that  all 
the  conditions  for  earnest  work  are  as  favorable  as  possible.  {School 
Management,  p.  171.) 

Pupils  need  time  to  think.  A  high-school  pupil  once  said: 
"All  our  time  is  so  taken  up  with  learning  our  lessons  and 
reciting  that  we  have  no  time  to  think."  Alas  !  this  indict- 
ment is  too  often  true.  In  the  hurry  of  activities,  in  school 
and  out,  with  the  methods  employed,  when  do  the  pupils 
really  find  time  to  reflect  upon  what  they  are  doing  ?  There 
should  be  frequent  times  in  the  pursuit  of  every  subject  when 
the  learner  may  have  time  for  meditation,  sustained  reflec- 
tion, and  opportunity  for  independent  organization  of  the 
work  in  his  own  mind. 

I  have  found  it  very  helpful  in  advanced  classes  to  assign 
written  reviews  to  be  worked  out  at  home.  Some  help  is 
usually  necessary  in  organization,  but  only  the  main  features 
are  suggested  and  the  students  are  left  to  give  expression  to 
the  ideas  as  they  lie  in  their  own  minds.  This  plan  necessi- 
tates the  using  of  class  notes,  gathering  of  materials  from  col- 
lateral reading,  and  organizing  the  whole  topic  for  themselves. 
The  topics  given  out  for  written  organization  frequently 
should  not  be  wholly  or  definitely  covered  in  the  books  or  in 
the  discussions,  but  should  consider  some  new  relations  grow- 
ing out  of  the  materials  at  hand.  Sometimes  a  topic  may  be 
studied  intensively  for  a  time  and  then  written  up  during  the 
class  period.  Such  work  is  the  best  sort  of  examination,  and 
has  the  great  advantage  of  giving  opportunity  for  deliberately 
organized  thoughts  and   the  formation  of  multiple  associa- 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       215 

tions.  A  necessary  prerequisite  of  all  memory  of  real  ideas  is 
just  this  associative  reflection. 

Multiple  Associations. — Many  diverse  associations  are  nec- 
essary to  secure  the  best  memory.  The  more  numerous  and 
diverse  the  associations  connected  with  a  given  fact,  the  more 
possibilities  of  its  recall.  Each  experience  becomes  a  "sug- 
gesting string"  which  may  be  pulled  to  induce  recall.  There 
is  great  danger  that  associations  will  be  too  few  and  of  the 
purely  mechanical  type.  The  way  in  which  the  ordinary 
text-book  history  is  studied  illustrates  the  point.  The  num- 
ber of  topics  is  large,  because  the  historian  feels  compelled  to 
give  a  complete  account.  This  necessitates  great  brevity  of 
topics,  usually  at  the  expense  of  clearness.  Furthermore,  this 
condensed  compendium  frequently  necessitates  giving  as  much 
space  to  comparatively  unimportant  events  as  to  those  which 
are  of  vital  significance  and  which  should  be  expanded  accord- 
ing to  their  importance.  An  actual  count  shows  that  average 
school  histories  contain  about  1,500  topics,  any  one  of  which 
would  furnish  several  days'  lessons  if  studied  sufficiently  to  be 
clearly  comprehended.  The  entire  1,500,  however,  are  fre- 
quently forced  kaleidoscopically  before  the  children  in  about 
270  lessons.  What  wonder  that  the  whole  subject  is  but  a 
confused  blur  in  the  minds  of  the  learners  ?  If  a  few  leading 
topics  were  selected  and  then  studied  deliberately  from  many 
sides  until  thoroughly  comprehended,  the  resulting  product 
would  be  infinitely  more  valuable.  With  the  abundance  of 
collateral  material  easily  obtainable,  every  lesson  ought  to  be 
illuminated  by  the  teacher,  and  by  means  of  other  readings, 
until  the  pupils  see  the  actors  face  to  face,  instead  of  through 
a  glass  darkly.  What  boots  it  if  the  entire  book  is  not  cov- 
ered ?  Not  all  history  is  recorded  in  one  book,  and  no  single 
author  has  selected  the  only  events  worth  while. 

The  important  thing  is  to  have  the  pupils  know  how  to 
study  the  subject;  to  know  where  to  find  books  and  sources 
that  are  worth  while ;  and  to  understand  some  history  so  well 
that  it  will  modify  their  likes  and  dislikes,  and  bias  their  entire 
future  thinking.     Through  this  they  should  develop  a  taste 


2i6         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

for  history  and  a  knowledge  of  its  proper  methods  of  study. 
If  they  have  not  acquired  a  genuine  Interest  In  the  narrative 
of  history,  the  work  has  been  largely  unfruitful.  If  a  high- 
school  pupil  should  spend  an  hour  a  day  for  three  weeks  read- 
ing on  the  Missouri  Compromise  or  the  United  States  Bank, 
he  would  have  some  ideas  so  clearly  and  firmly  Implanted 
that  he  could  talk  Intelligently  upon  the  subject,  and,  more- 
over, he  would  never  forget  the  salient  features.  The  Ideas 
gained  would  be  so  many-sided  and  the  associations  so  diverse 
and  multiple  that  they  could  not  be  easily  forgotten.  How 
different  is  much  of  the  study  of  history ! 

In  studying  geography  It  is  not  necessary  that  every  fact 
chronicled  In  a  text-book  should  be  learned.  The  text  is  usu- 
ally a  compendium  for  reference.  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
pupil  should  take  all  of  the  topics,  and  in  precisely  the  same 
order  as  given  in  the  book.  Suppose  the  order  is  varied  and 
some  topics  even  omitted  ?  If  the  topics  taken  are  rendered 
interesting  and  clear  and  full,  the  method  of  geographical  study 
will  have  been  impressed  and  the  facts  learned  will  be  usable. 
In  order  to  accomplish  these  fundamental  ends,  only  a  few 
things  can  be  studied,  and  these  must  be  taken  so  exhaustively 
that  no  doubt  exists  as  to  whether  the  resulting  knowledge 
consists  of  words  alone  or  of  clear,  well-defined  concepts  gained 
through  concrete  individual  notions.  Usually  the  book  con- 
tains only  the  merest  statement  of  the  concept.  All  concrete 
details,  which  are  absolutely  necessary  prerequisites  to  con- 
ceptual ideas,  are  lacking.  Hence  the  child  begins  with  the 
generalization  which  should  be  the  end.  The  elementary 
text-book  is  a  good  summary,  but  not  an  exhaustive  treatment 
of  any  of  the  topics  discussed.  Much  of  the  material  for  the 
adequate  treatment  must  be  supplied  from  other  sources — by 
the  teacher  and  collateral  books. 

We  marvel  at  the  politician  and  the  scholar  who  seem  to 
have  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  illustrations  and  arguments 
bubbling  over  for  expression.  We  say  **What  wonderful 
memories!"  But  outside  of  their  specialties  the  memories 
would  probably  be  found  as  unresourceful  as  other  people's. 


CONSERVATION   OF   EXPERIENCE:   MEMORY       217 

The  secret  of  their  fund  of  ready  recall  is  easily  accounted  for 
by  the  long  study  and  reflection  upon  the  same  thing.  Who- 
ever has  the  perseverance  and  gives  long-continued  attention 
to  any  line  of  investigation  can  acquire  a  fund  of  ready  knowl- 
edge sufficient  to  enable  him  to  talk  authoritatively  upon  that 
line. 

Teachers  are  frequently  disappointed  in  examinations  be- 
cause pupils  seem  to  have  forgotten  so  much  that  they  had 
supposedly  been  taught.  The  wonder  is,  however,  not  that 
pupils  have  forgotten  so  much,  but  that  they  remember  as 
much  as  they  do.  The  main  reason  why  they  do  not  remem- 
ber more  is  that  they  have  not  really  learned  anything  that 
they  were  asked  to  recall.  They  may  have  read  the  words  of 
the  lessons  assigned  and  the  teachers  may  have  explained,  but, 
unless  the  lessons  have  become  more  than  words,  retention  of 
ideas  cannot  follow. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Have  you  recently  read  of  any  sure  means  of  acquiring  a  "steel-trap" 
memory?  2.  Were  there  any  sound  psychological  principles  underlying 
them?  3.  Do  you  know  of  any  phenomenal  memories?  4.  Do  you  know 
of  any  peculiar  memories?  5.  Is  your  memory  equally  good  in  all  direc- 
tions? 6,  Do  you  learn  certain  subjects  more  easily  than  others?  7.  Do 
you  recognize  any  differences  between  your  present  memory  ability  and 
your  childhood  ability  in  memory?  8,  Try  memorizing  some  simple  prose 
or  poetry.  Have  some  children  of  8  or  10  try  the  same.  Compare  re- 
sults. 9.  Try  the  whole  and  part  methods  with  different  types  of  mate- 
rials. Note  results.  10.  What  principles  apply  in  learning  the  ideas  in 
this  book?     II.  Criticise  cramming  for  examinations. 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chaps.  XIII,  XIV,  XV. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chaps.  VI,  XII. 

3.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  IX,  X,  XI,  XII,  XIII. 

4.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chap.  XV. 

5.  James,  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals,  chap.  XII. 

6.  Parker,  Methods  of  Teaching,  chap.  VIII. 

7.  Pyle,  The  Science  of  Human  Nature,  chap.  VII. 

8.  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  chap.  XI. 

9.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  VIII. 

10.  Woodworth,  Psychology :  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chaps,  XIII,  XIV. 

11.  James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  vol.  I,  chap.  XVI. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
LEARNING  THROUGH  IMITATION 

Recent  Recognition  of  Its  Importance. — Men  have  long  rec- 
ognized that  imitation  influences  the  conduct  of  individuals 
and  of  groups.  However,  it  has  usually  been  thought  to  be  a 
low  order  of  learning,  something  characteristic  of  the  imma- 
ture, something  slavish  and  uncommendable. 

It  is  only  recently  that  we  have  come  to  understand  that 
imitation  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  and  important  means 
of  learning.  Only  the  imitative  individual  is  capable  of  learn- 
ing, and  the  most  imitative  is  the  most  educable.  Even  ani- 
mal trainers  recognize  this.  If  they  find  an  animal  that  imi- 
tates poorly,  they  try  to  secure  one  more  apt. 

Meaning  of  Imitation. — Whenever  an  action  has  been  per- 
formed, an  organic  memory  is  left.  Because  of  this  modifica- 
tion, there  is  a  tendency  to  repeat  the  same  action,  even  though 
there  is  no  outside  stimulus  present.  If  the  stimulus  recurs, 
the  reaction  takes  place  easily,  reflexly,  almost  automatically. 
This  tendency  of  an  organism  to  repeat  an  action  once  performed 
is  imitation.  The  essential  process  is  the  copying  of  one's  own 
action  and  not  the  action  of  some  one  else. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  all  imitation  is  of  the  reflex  type,  and  fun- 
damentally all  imitation  is  autoimitation.  One  can  imitate 
only  those  actions  which  he  himself  has  experienced.  In  copy- 
ing others  one  selects  those  factors  which  have  been  experienced 
and  sometimes  recombines  them  so  that  they  seem  to  be  new 
and  novel.  A  good  illustration  of  autoimitation  is  afforded 
by  the  process  of  acquiring  speech.  It  is  an  interesting  and 
significant  fact  that  the  first  words  of  all  children  of  all  nations 
or  tongues  are  papa,  mama,  daddy,  or  some  modification  of 
them.  That  occurs  not  because  the  children  try  to  use  words 
meaning  father  and  mother.     Before  they  use  vocalized  speech 

218 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  219 

their  natural  vocalized  sounds  are  ah,  ah,  eh,  etc.  When  the 
nascent  period  for  vocalized  speech  appears  they  begin  to  use 
the  lips  and  tongue,  and  consonant  sounds  precede  the  vowels. 
The  expressions  then  become  ma,  ma;  ba,  ba;  da,  da,  etc.,  and 
the  fond  parents  say:  "Why,  the  baby  is  saying  papa  and 
mama!"  The  babe  had  no  such  thought.  The  child  was 
just  reflexly  uttering  the  only  sounds  possible.  It  is  more 
correct  to  say  that  the  parents  imitate  the  children.  When 
the  child  hits  upon  these  new  expressions,  it  is  so  pleased  with 
the  acquisition  that  it  oftentimes  keeps  up  the  babbling  for 
minutes  at  a  time.  Hence,  this  is  sometimes  called  the  la  Id 
period  of  language. 

Imitation  Not  Always  Voluntary. — Imitation  has  generally 
been  considered  to  be  a  conscious,  intentional  copying  of 
others.  But  we  know  that  everybody,  little  children  espe- 
cially, imitate  many  acts  of  others  without  every  intending  to 
or  even  being  conscious  that  they  had  observed  them.  Our 
pronunciation  of  words  is  taken  on  unconsciously,  our  mode 
of  standing,  w^alking,  and  various  mannerisms  could  not  be 
traced  to  any  particular  attempt  to  copy  some  one  else,  but 
we  have  "caught"  them  somewhere  unintentionally.  If  one 
child  afiflicted  with  St.  Vitus's  dance  goes  to  school  with  nor- 
mal children,  the  chances  are  that  others  will  soon  become  af- 
flicted. If  a  teacher  talks  in  a  harsh,  high-pitched  tone,  before 
long  all  her  pupils  will  be  doing  likewise.  A  gentle,  well-modu- 
lated voice  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  is  equally  contagious. 
A  nervous,  fidgety  teacher  is  sure  to  infect  all  her  pupils,  while 
one  that  is  calm  and  well-poised  will  exert  a  wholesome  influ- 
ence on  all  around  her.  All  that  is  summed  up  in  the  expres- 
sion "unconscious  education"  is  a  matter  of  non-voluntary 
imitation. 

Ideomotor  Action. — Recent  investigations  have  demon- 
strated that  all  ideas  tend  to  express  themselves  in  action. 
Whenever  any  idea  is  held  by  the  mind,  it  struggles  for  mus- 
cular expression.  Suppose  you  awaken  some  cold  morning 
and  say  to  yourself  "I  must  get  up,"  but  try  to  banish  the 
thought  and  attempt  to  take  another  nap.     You  continually 


220         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

find  yourself  thinking  "I  must  get  up,"  "I  must  get  up,"  but 
finally  apparently  banish  the  thought.  All  at  once,  when  en- 
joying a  cat-nap  or  a  day-dream,  without  thinking,  up  you  get. 
The  thought  has  worked  itself  out  into  action.  Any  one  can 
easily  walk  a  two-inch  board  on  the  floor.  But  suppose  the 
board  is  placed  a  hundred  feet  above  the  floor.  No  one  but 
an  acrobat  or  a  trained  gymnast  could  accomplish  the  feat 
without  falling.  Why  the  difference  ?  In  the  latter  case  the 
thought  of  falling  so  possesses  the  mind  as  to  inhibit  every- 
thing else,  and  naturally  enough  the  motor  response  speed- 
ily follows  up  by  destroying  equilibrium  and  causing  the 
fall. 

The  ideomotor  action  is  not  imitation,  but  it  furnishes  the 
starting-point  of  multitudes  of  imitative  reactions.  It  pro- 
vides the  pattern  which  tends  to  be  copied.  This  is  of  great 
importance,  because  the  individual  is  thus  seen  to  be  very 
greatly  under  the  influence  of  environment  which  furnishes 
the  stimulations. 

General  Illustrations  of  Imitation. — Language  has  an  instinc- 
tive basis,  but  its  particular  form  is  wholly  due  to  imitation. 
That  we  speak  and  gesture  rather  than  howl,  bark,  or  neigh  is 
a  matter  of  instinct;  that  we  speak  English,  French,  or  German 
rather  than  Russian,  Armenian,  or  Choctaw  is  due  to  imitation. 
The  English  boy  drops  his  h's  where  we  should  put  them  on, 
or  tacks  them  on  where  we  should  suppress  them,  simply  be- 
cause he  lives  with  others  who  do  so.  The  New  Englander 
says  nevah,  rivah,  and  Jarvar;  the  Englishman  says  dog,  while 
the  Western  American  says  dawg;  the  Englishman  calls  a 
young  bovine  a  calf,  while  the  ranchman  maintains  that  it  is 
a  calf.  In  one  region  of  the  United  States  every  one  says 
bucket;  in  another,  pail.  I  carry  a  pocketbook,  the  New  Eng- 
lander a  wallet.  The  city  man  goes  to  church,  his  country 
cousin  goes  to  meeting.  I  attended  a  Sabbath-school  when  a 
boy,  my  children  go  to  Sunday-school.  Whether  one  whistles 
a  tune,  a  tyune,  or  a  tschune,  all  depends  upon  who  his  neigh- 
bors are.  Slang  phrases,  catchy  expressions,  or  popular  songs 
are  caught  up  by  the  special  circle  to  which  they  appeal ;  they 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  221 

are  dinned  into  everybody's  ears,  and  finally  resound  from  the 
lips  of  all  who  have  been  made  listeners,  willing  or  unwilling. 
How  many  of  us  have  felt  chagrined  on  catching  ourselves 
humming  some  meaningless  nickeldom  melody,  or  using  the 
latest  slang  expressions  ? 

Manners  and  customs  are  products  of  imitation.  Thou- 
sands of  our  everyday  matters  of  etiquette  no  longer  have  any 
reason  back  of  their  performance.  Though  they  may  have 
originated  in  some  rational  way  that  has  long  since  disap- 
peared, they  are  now  perpetuated  solely  through  imitation. 
For  example,  the  people  of  many  nations  shake  one  another's 
hands  on  meeting;  but  those  from  some  countries  shake  their 
own  hands.  Americans  and  Englishmen  say  "How  do  you 
do?"  the  German,  "How  goes  it?"  American  men  lift  their 
hats  to  a  lady;  the  German  is  more  apt  to  do  so  on  meeting  a 
man.  With  Caucasians,  black  is  an  emblem  of  mourning; 
among  the  Chinese,  white  performs  the  same  service. 

Fashions  in  dress  are  created  and  perpetuated  through  imi- 
tation. Were  it  not  so,  scores  of  hideous,  unbecoming,  unhy- 
gienic fashions  could  never  have  been  launched.  Desirable 
fashions  are  maintained  in  the  same  manner.  There  must  be 
leaders  who  will  be  aped  in  all  they  do  to  set  the  ball  rolling. 
Their  devotees  pay  homage  by  immediate  adoption.  Metro- 
politan milliners,  dressmakers,  and  tailors  know  that  to  insure 
changes  of  fashion  all  they  need  to  do  is  to  induce  some  leader 
to  appear  in  a  new  style,  and  the  fashion  is  launched.  This  is 
a  usual  method  of  stimulating  trade.  Psychical  laws  are  the 
most  potent  factors  in  economics.  A  history  of  furniture  re- 
veals characteristic  styles  prevailing  often  for  centuries.  But 
within  the  memory  of  every  adult  the  styles  in  furniture  have 
changed  at  least  three  distinct  times.  In  dress,  at  least  half 
a  dozen  special  epochs  may  be  traced  through  the  last  quarter- 
century,  besides  a  semiannual  upheaval  in  minor  matters. 
One  should  enjoy  his  Flemish  oak  and  his  mission  patterns  as 
fully  as  possible  to-day,  for  to-morrow  they  will  be  sought  out 
by  relic-hunters.  The  sixteenth-century  style  was  reopened 
to  the  sunlight  for  a  day  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century, 


22  2    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

and  shut  away  for  another  cycle  to  proclaim  it  the  only  style 
worth  possessing. 

Dramatic  Imitation. — One  of  the  important  elements  of  dra- 
matic representation  is  the  imitative.  Through  suggestion  an 
idea  is  received  and  its  representation  is  carried  out  with  more 
or  less  fidelity.  In  children  the  impersonated  self  often  be- 
comes so  real  as  temporarily  to  supplant  the  usual  self.  James 
writes  {Principles  of  Psychology,  II,  p.  409): 

For  a  few  months  in  one  of  my  children's  third  year,  he  literally 
hardly  ever  appeared  in  his  own  person.  It  was  always  "Play  I'm 
So-and-So,  and  you  are  So-and-So,  and  the  chair  is  such  a  thing,  and 
then  we'll  do  this  or  that."  If  you  called  him  by  his  name,  H.,  you 
invariably  got  the  reply,  "I'm  not  H.,  I'm  a  hyena,  or  a  horse-car," 
or  whatever  the  feigned  object  might  be.  He  outwore  the  impulse 
after  a  time;  but  while  it  lasted,  it  had  every  appearance  of  being  the 
automatic  result  of  ideas,  often  suggested  by  perceptions,  working  out 
irresistible  motor  effects. 

Sully  tells  us  that  children,  when  pretending  to  live  another 
life,  frequently  resent  any  intrusion  that  seems  to  contradict 
the  harmony  of  the  simulated  world.  He  relates  that  "a  little 
girl  of  4  was  playing  'shop'  with  her  younger  sister.  'The 
elder  one'  (writes  the  mother)  'was  shopman  at  the  time  I 
came  into  her  room  and  kissed  her.  She  broke  out  into  pite- 
ous sobs.  I  could  not  understand  why.  At  last  she  sobbed 
out:  "Mother,  you  never  kiss  the  man  in  the  shop."  I  had 
with  my  kiss  quite  spoilt  her  illusion.'" 

Following  the  Crowd. — The  world  is  full  of  everyday  illus- 
trations of  following  the  crowd.  Commercial  panics  are  good 
examples  of  the  force  of  wholesale  imitation.  Let  it  be  ru- 
mored that  there  is  a  run  on  the  bank.  If  a  neighbor  is  known 
to  have  withdrawn  deposits,  a  dozen  will  follow  his  example, 
and  immediately  a  stampede  is  precipitated.  At  a  fire  one 
giddy,  emotional  individual  can  cause  the  multitude  to  in- 
dulge in  a  mad,  frenzied  rush,  while  a  calm,  phlegmatic  tem- 
perament assuming  generalship  can  quiet  the  turbulence  and 
lead  the  unstable  throng  to  safety.  Because  of  suggestibility 
and  imitation  we  have  such  phenomena  as  the  Crusades, 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  223 

witchcraft,  the  Dutch  tuHp  craze,  and  the  Mississippi  Bubble. 

Imitation  is  rife  in  pohtics.  The  majority  of  men  vote  the 
party  ticket  of  their  fathers.  Few  come  to  fixed,  independent 
beHefs  through  reflection  and  deliberation.  Men  often  believe 
themselves  original  thinkers,  but  even  college-bred  men  vote 
largely  as  their  fathers  did.  Deahl  made  an  investigation 
which,  though  in  a  somewhat  limited  field,  confirms  casual 
observations.  He  found  that  out  of  fifty  men  selected  from 
among  college  graduates,  and  many  of  them  college  professors, 
84  per  cent  voted  the  same  ticket  as  their  fathers  voted.  Could 
a  promiscuous  canvass  of  the  less  well  educated  be  secured,  the 
percentage  would  probably  be  even  larger. 

Imitation  in  the  Fine  Arts. — Although  the  products  of  the 
fine  arts  are  not  mere  copies,  they  are,  nevertheless,  imitative. 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  says:  **Our  art  is  not  a  divine  gift,  neither 
is  it  a  mechanical  trade."  Even  though  an  artist  does  not 
copy  other  works  of  art,  he  must  go  to  nature  for  her  innumer- 
able forms.  Goethe  writes:  "The  artist  must  hold  to  nature, 
imitate  her.  He  must  choose  the  best  out  of  the  good  before 
him."  Art  has  gradually  developed  by  slowly  accumulating 
imitative  accretions.  Visit  the  famous  art  galleries  and  study 
the  art  of  schools  or  periods.  To  the  novice  the  sameness  in 
a  given  school  or  period  is  more  striking  than  the  differences. 
The  individual  variations  which  the  connoisseur  recognizes  as 
originality  and  marks  of  genius  are  very  real  and  very  great 
to  the  critical  eye,  but  they  are  apt  to  be  overlooked  by  the 
multitude. 

Deahl  writes: 

The  fundamental  principle  in  any  school  of  art  or  of  literature  is 
imitation.  Among  the  master  artists  it  is  selective,  intelligent,  often 
unconscious  imitation.  Among  the  second  or  third  rate  artists  imita- 
tion is  the  cause  of  similarity,  but  is  a  less-intelligent,  a  more-mechani- 
cal kind  of  imitation;  it  approaches  nearer  to  what  we  term  copying. 
{Imitation  in  Education,  p.  31.) 

Before  the  artist  exhibits  great  originality  he  must  spend 
years  in  imitating — either  nature  or  the  products  of  other  art- 


2  24    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

ists.  This  in  no  wise  implies  mere  copying.  It  means  that 
the  great  works  should  be  studied,  the  principles  mastered,  the 
ideas  absorbed,  and  new  inspiration  developed  out  of  them. 
It  is  said  that  William  M.  Hunt,  one  of  America's  eminent  art- 
ists, advised  continued  study  of  the  best  works  of  art.  "You 
must  set  yourself  ahead  by  studying  fine  things.  I've  told  you 
over  and  over  again  whose  works  to  draw — Michael  Angelo, 
Raphael,  Diirer,  Holbein,  Mantegna.  Get  hold  of  something 
of  theirs.  Hang  it  up  in  your  room,  trace  it,  copy  it,  draw  it 
from  memory  over  and  over,  until  you  own  it  as  your  own 
'Casabianca'  and  'Mary  had  a  Little  Lamb.'"  (Quoted  by 
Deahl,  op.  cit.,  p.  29.) 

Imitation  in  Literature. — Although  imitations  are  not  so 
easily  traceable  in  literary  productions,  yet  a  critical  study  of 
many  of  the  masterpieces  will  disclose  the  effects  of  suggestion, 
at  least.  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha,"  as  is  well  known,  has  a 
prototype  in  the  Finnish  poem  "Kalevala."  Longfellow  can- 
not be  said  to  have  copied  it  from  "  Kalevala,"  but  he  received 
very  definite  suggestions  as  to  both  form  and  content.  Chau- 
cer was  doubtless  much  indebted  to  Boccaccio  for  suggestions 
which  were  utilized  in  The  Canterbury  Tales.  Most  of  Shake- 
speare's plots  were  not  absolutely  original  with  him.  Carlyle's 
Sartor  Resartus  is  plainly  of  German  origin.  Rabelais,  while 
imitating  the  Greeks,  afforded  suggestions  for  many  who  fol- 
lowed him.  Many  incidents  similar  to  those  in  Don  Quixote, 
Robinson  Crusoe,  and  Gulliver's  Travels  under  other  names  and 
bearing  the  imprint  of  other  pens,  are  said  to  have  delighted 
many,  even  centuries  ago.  To  assert  these  facts  is  in  no  wise 
to  discredit  the  authors.  To  be  able  to  imitate  and  give  in 
addition  the  creative  touch  of  a  new  whole  is  evidence  of 
genius.  The  majority  either  copy  blindly  and  poorly  without 
deviation  or  advance,  or  they  do  not  see  what  is  worth  while 
to  imitate.  Without  making  use  of  what  has  been  wrought 
and  giving  it  a  new  turn,  the  world  would  remain  at  a  stand- 
still. To  imitate  is  no  sign  of  weakness.  "When  a  writer 
improves  what  he  imitates,  he  does  well ;  but  when  he  fails  to 
add  beauty,  we  condemn  him.     New  fight,  or  grace,  or  charm 


LEARNING   THROUGH  IMITATION  225 

must  be  given.  In  the  progress  of  the  mind,  in  all  depart- 
ments of  literature,  we  find  imitation,  the  most  palpable  in 
the  books  we  most  admire."     (Deahl,  op.  cit.,  p.  33.) 

Educational  Value  of  Imitation. — Every  teacher  ought  to 
understand  the  great  importance  of  imitation.  Up  to  the 
time  the  child  has  entered  school  a  very  large  proportion  of 
its  knowledge  has  been  gained  and  retained  in  a  purely  imita- 
tive way.  If  pupils  imitate,  the  great  educational  question  is 
how  to  select  wisely  copy  that  is  worthy  of  imitation.  Sev- 
eral of  the  ancient  writers  on  education  realized  the  impor- 
tance of  imitation  in  education.  Plato  shows  its  value  in 
learning  language,  music,  painting,  science,  dancing,  literary 
style,  and  also  in  formation  of  character.  Xenophon  believed 
that  the  most  effective  way  of  teaching  behavior  and  manners 
is  through  imitation.  Aristotle  cautions  against  leaving  chil- 
dren much  with  slaves,  and  also  urges  us  to  be  careful  what 
stories  children  hear.  Many  Greeks  are  known  to  have  been 
solicitous  that  their  children  should  mingle  with  those  who 
spoke  pure  Greek.  Plutarch  urged  in  his  essay  on  The  Train- 
ing of  Children  that  they  should  be  shielded  "lest,  being  con- 
stantly used  to  converse  with  persons  of  barbarous  language 
and  all  evil  manners,  they  receive  corrupt  tinctures  from  them. 
For  it  is  a  true  proverb,  '  that  if  you  live  with  a  lame  man  you 
will  learn  to  halt.'"  Quintilian  would  insist  that  the  nurse 
have  a  good  moral  character  and  that  she  should  "also  speak 
with  propriety.  Let  the  child  not  be  accustomed,  therefore, 
even  while  he  is  yet  an  infant,  to  phraseology  which  must  be 
unlearned." 

Imitation  in  Language  Education. — Think  what  it  means  to 
learn  to  talk !  A  grown  person  would  give  a  great  deal  to 
learn  to  speak  a  foreign  language  correctly  in  a  few  years. 
The  child  at  5  or  6  years  has  gained  almost  perfect  com- 
mand of  the  oral  expression  of  all  his  thoughts.  Of  course  his 
ideas  and  his  vocabulary  are  limited,  but  his  expression  is 
almost  perfect  within  his  limited  range.  At  this  age  the  num- 
ber of  words  is  not  so  small,  either,  as  one  might  suppose. 
An  average  child  of  6  years  brought  up  in  a  good  home  pos- 


2  26    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

sesses  a  usable  vocabulary  of  a  couple  thousand  words.  He 
understands  nearly  double  that  many.  An  adult  often  spends . 
years  of  painfully  conscious  labor  in  acquiring  the  vocabulary 
of  a  foreign  language.  Not  only  does  imitation  determine 
whether  the  child  is  to  speak  English,  German,  French,  Ice- 
landic, Choctaw,  or  Siamese,  but  the  vocabulary,  the  inflec- 
tion, to  some  extent  tone,  rapidity,  order  of  words,  choice  of 
illustrations,  are  also  matters  of  imitation. 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  the  role  played  by  imitation  in  the 
first  years  of  childish  attempts  to  master  the  mother  tongue. 
Children  learn  through  imitation  to  clip  their  words,  to  intone 
them  clearly,  to  talk  in  monosyllables,  or  to  drawl.  The  boy 
when  asked  why  he  drawled  his  words  replied :  "  Mother  drawls 
her'n."  The  deaf  child,  unable  to  imitate  the  speech  of  his 
fellows,  remains  mute  (unless  he  learns  lip  or  throat  reading). 
The  child  that  lives  in  a  home  where  correct  language  is  spoken 
and  who  hears  good  language  among  his  playmates  will  speak 
correctly,  barring  a  few  inaccuracies  resulting  from  irregulari- 
ties in  the  structure  of  the  language.  He  will  learn  to  syllabi- 
cate properly,  utter  words  distinctly,  and  to  give  correct  em- 
phasis to  his  expressions.  The  teaching  of  language  in  the 
schools  is  often  rendered  difficult  because  children  have  so 
much  to  unlearn.  Years  of  imitation  of  undesirable  models 
counteract  efforts  in  the  right  direction. 

In  all  language  acquisition  of  the  child  the  most  important 
factor  is  imitation — at  first  unstudied  and  purely  absorptive, 
and  gradually  becoming  conscious  and  purposive.  At  first  the 
all-important  thing  is  to  have  the  child  hear  only  the  purest 
of  speech.  He  will  then  re-echo  exactly  as  he  has  heard. 
Later  he  should  not  only  hear  pure  speech,  but  he  should  be- 
come saturated  with  the  forms  of  the  choicest  diction  expressed 
in  literature.  Gradually  the  beauty  of  forms  of  expression  in 
literature  should  be  brought  to  his  consciousness  in  order  that 
he  may  rise  from  the  stage  of  reflex  imitation  to  the  higher, 
studied,  idealistic  stage.  The  primary  consideration,  how- 
ever, is  so  to  pre-empt  the  mind  with  the  choicest  form  and 
content  in  literature  that  spontaneous  expression  of  a  similar 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  227 

nature  will  follow  necessarily  as  a  result  of  the  laws  of  ideo- 
motor  action. 

Properly  guarded,  even  definitely  studied  imitative  repro- 
duction of  the  best  models  is  of  great  assistance  in  acquiring 
ideal  habits  of  expression.  Occasionally  when  a  pupil  has 
read  a  piece  of  literature  it  is  well  to  have  him  reproduce  it 
with  all  the  imitativeness  he  can  command.  For  what  other 
purpose  has  he  studied  than  to  make  the  thought  and  art  his 
own  ?  So  long  as  the  art  has  become  integrated  into  his  own 
style  and  is  not  a  borrowed  garment  put  on  for  the  occasion, 
there  is  no  danger.  A  careful  distinction  must,  of  course,  be 
kept  in  mind  between  proper  imitation  and  mere  copying. 
Spontaneity  and  naturalness  are  prime  desiderata,  and  are  not 
sacrificed  if  the  language  work  is  made  a  matter  of  assimila- 
tion and  not  one  of  mechanical  memory.  The  models  for 
studied  imitation  should  also  be  varied  and  none  long  con- 
tinued. The  place  and  meaning  of  imitation  which  are  here 
desired  to  be  emphasized  are  well  illustrated  in  many  of  the 
present-day  books  on  composition,  in  which  the  basis  of  com- 
position work  is  to  be  the  study  of  the  choicest  literary  models 
of  the  various  forms  of  composition. 

Chubb  says: 

Children  learn  their  native  tongue  by  imitation;  and  imitation  con- 
tinues to  be,  throughout  the  school  course,  the  chief  factor  in  language 
work.  The  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetorical  precept  are  later  and 
comparatively  unimportant  means  to  the  end  sought.  Of  models,  the 
most  influential  is  the  teacher  herself;  the  influence  of  book  models  is 
heavily  discounted  if  the  teacher's  own  practice  is  not  exemplary  and 
winning.  And  by  example  we  mean,  first  and  foremost,  oral  example. 
{The  Teaching  of  English,  p.  374.) 

He  further  says: 

Children  should  learn  to  write  as  they  learn  to  swim — by  watchmg 
and  imitating  others;  by  trying  under  the  lead  of  a  model.  They 
develop  a  feeling  and  instinct  and  knack  for  writing,  without  which 
they  will  never  be  effective  as  writers.  .  .  .  The  child  or  youth  who 
writes  well  is  he  who  feels  that  he  has  something  to  say,  wants  to  say 


2  28    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

it,  and  to  say  it  well — to  make  his  point.  He  naturally  falls  back, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  upon  examples  known  to  him.  {Op.  cit., 
p.  3^2.) 

The  testimony  of  some  really  successful  writers  concerning 
their  method  of  learning  to  write  should  be  valuable.  Steven- 
son writes  of  imitation; 

That,  like  it  or  not,  is  the  way  to  learn  to  write.  It  was  so  Keats 
learned,  and  there  never  was  a  finer  temperament  for  literature  than 
Keats's;  it  is  so,  if  we  could  trace  it  out,  that  all  men  have  learned. 
Perhaps  I  hear  some  one  cry  out:  "But  that  is  not  the  way  to  be  origi- 
nal!"  It  is  not;  nor  is  there  any  way  but  to  be  born  so.  Nor  yet,  if 
you  are  born  original,  is  there  anything  in  this  training  that  shall  clip 
the  wings  of  your  originality.  There  can  be  no  one  more  original  than 
Montaigne,  neither  could  any  be  more  unlike  Cicero ;  yet  no  craftsman 
can  fail  to  see  how  much  the  one  in  his  own  time  tried  to  imitate  the 
other.  Burns  is  the  very  type  of  a  prime  force  in  letters;  he  was  of  all 
men  the  most  imitative.  Shakespeare  himself,  the  imperial,  proceeds 
directly  from  a  school.  Nor  is  there  anything  here  that  should  aston- 
ish the  considerate.  Before  he  can  tell  what  cadences  he  truly  prefers, 
the  student  should  have  tried  all  that  are  possible;  before  he  can  choose 
and  preserve  a  fitting  key  of  words,  he  should  long  have  practised  the 
literary  scales — and  it  is  the  great  point  of  these  imitations  that  there 
still  shines  beyond  the  student's  reach  his  inimitable  model. 

Stevenson  further  says: 

Whenever  I  read  a  book  or  passage  that  particularly  pleased  me,  I 
must  sit  down  at  once  and  set  myself  to  imitate  that  quality  of  pro- 
priety or  conspicuous  force  or  happy  distinction  in  style.  I  was  un- 
successful and  I  knew  it,  but  I  got  some  practice  in  these  vain  bouts 
in  rhythm,  in  harmony,  in  construction,  and  in  co-ordination  of  parts. 
I  have  thus  played  the  sedulous  ape  to  Hazhtt,  to  Lamb,  to  Words- 
worth, to  Browne,  to  De  Foe,  to  Hawthorne,  to  Montaigne,  to  Baude- 
laire, and  to  Obermann.     (Stevenson,  Memories  and  Portraits ,  p.  55.) 

Franklin's  early  reading  gave  him  a  bias  toward  dogmatic 
disputation.  This  was  later  overcome  by  imitation  of  a  dif- 
ferent style.  He  found  himself  lacking  "in  elegance  of  ex- 
pression, in  method,  and  in  perspicuity."  He  then  came 
across  a  volume  of  the  Spectator ^  which  he  says: 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  229 

I  read  it  over  and  over  and  was  much  delighted  with  it.  I  thought 
the  writing  was  excellent,  and  wished,  if  possible,  to  imitate  it.  With 
that  view  I  took  some  of  the  papers,  and  making  short  hints  of  the  sen- 
timents in  each  sentence,  laid  them  by  a  few  days,  and  then,  without 
looking  at  the  work,  tried  to  complete  the  papers  again  by  expressing 
each  hinted  sentiment  at  length,  and  as  fully  as  it  had  been  expressed 
before  in  suitable  words  that  should  occur  to  me.  Then  I  compared 
my  Spectator  with  the  original,  discovered  some  of  my  faults,  and  cor- 
rected them. 

To  acquire  a  stock  of  words  and  a  readiness  in  recollection 
and  use  of  them  he  "took  some  of  the  tales  in  the  Spectator 
and  turned  them  into  verse;  and  after  a  time,  when  I  had 
pretty  well  forgotten  the  prose,  turned  them  back  again." 

Whom  Do  Children  Imitate  ? — The  fact  that  children  im- 
itate other  children  more  than  adults  can  be  scientifically 
explained.  Imitation,  as  shown  before,  is  fundamentally  a  rep- 
etition of  one's  own  previous  experience.  Therefore  one  can- 
not Imitate  the  experiences  of  others  when  they  have  not  been 
realized  as  a  part  of  one's  own  previous  experience.  This  does 
not  mean  that  they  have  been  realized  In  their  entirety,  but 
at  least  In  their  elements.  The  child,  therefore,  Imitates  ac- 
tions of  others  that  he  can  understand.  If  he  observes  actions 
which  have  no  meaning  to  him,  there  Is  no  tendency  to  Imitate 
them. 

The  boy  follows  the  leadership  of  the  livery-stable  hand,  the 
corner  loafer,  or  the  bandit  rather  than  the  leadership  of 
George  Washington,  because  the  former  are  comprehended 
through  experiences  acquired  through  the  natural  expression 
of  his  own  instinctive  tendencies.  The  latter  Is  not  copied 
because  too  remote  from  his  every-day  thinking  and  experi- 
ence. 

Adolescent  Imitation. — Imitation  Is  usually  considered  to 
be  a  dominant  characteristic  of  early  childhood,  but  Is  not 
regarded  as  of  much  significance  in  youth  and  adult  life.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  Imitation  Is  as  determinative  of  conduct  In 
youth  as  In  childhood.  The  types  of  Imitation  are  not  the 
same  at  the  different  ages.  The  child's  imitation  Is  of  the 
automatic  type;  the  youth's  selective,  deliberate,  and  studied. 


230    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

The  youth  is  more  idealistic  than  the  child,  and  his  ideals  de- 
velop into  conduct.  The  youth  is  constantly  studying  and 
selecting  models  from  people  about  him  in  active  life,  and  also 
from  his  reading.  What  boy  has  not  run  chasing  the  ball  for 
the  big  fellows  until  ready  to  drop  from  exhaustion?  How 
many  boys  have  not  been  beguiled  by  some  unscrupulous, 
though  to  them  fascinating,  bully  into  doing  things  which 
would  horrify  their  parents  and  later  themselves,  simply  to 
meet  the  approval  of  their  hero  ? 

Were  youth  not  purblind  in  their  hero-worship,  no  boy 
would  repeat  the  deathly  sickness  of  his  first  smoke  simply  to 
project  himself  into  his  ideal  world.  No  college  freshman 
would  don  a  fool's  cap,  a  dress  suit,  or  a  clown's  garb  and 
labor  six  hours  rolling  a  peanut  through  the  main  street  of 
the  town,  appear  at  chapel  in  chains,  in  class  in  paint  more 
hideous  than  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  or  the  thousand  and 
one  equally  inane  things,  so  lacking  in  fun  for  adults  that 
even  the  street-laborers  will  not  turn  their  heads  to  look.  We 
should  not  bewail  such  actions  nor  pronounce  censure,  but  we 
should  understand  the  mental  attitude.  Those  are  perfectly 
normal  states  for  those  ages,  and  will  be  moulted  in  due  time. 

College  government  largely  depends  upon  the  sentiment 
espoused  by  the  students  themselves.  Faculty  rules  are  in- 
significant in  comparison  with  the  laws  enunciated  by  the 
leaders  of  the  classes.  High-school  pupils,  though  not  so 
assertive,  idealize  and  idolize  even  more  blindly.  What  is 
more  suggestive  of  the  cataleptic  trance  than  the  high-school 
boy  in  love,  especially  with  some  one  old  enough  to  be  his 
mother  ? 

Because  of  this  blind  and  excessive  fidelity  to  a  course  of 
life  once  assumed,  it  behooves  the  guardians  of  youth  to  pro- 
vide desirable  copy  for  the  youth  to  imitate.  Many  a  youth's 
aim  has  been  low  through  life  simply  because  he  has  too  early 
idolized  unworthy  copy.  It  is  highly  important  that  boys  and 
girls  both  see  something  of  the  world  outside  their  own  cir- 
cumscribed community  before  developing  too  fixedly  their 
ideals  of  life-work  and  especially  of  life  companions.     Savon- 


LEARNING  THROUGH  IMITATION  231 

arola  was  saved  to  the  world  for  a  monumental  work  because 
the  ignorant  shepherdess  rejected  his  suit  when  he  was  a  cal- 
low youth.  His  wanderings  caused  by  his  fancied  dejection 
gave  him  an  enlarged  horizon  and  higher  ideals. 

To  get  an  idea  of  imitation  among  adolescents,  one  needs 
only  to  observe  any  adolescent  boys  or  girls  with  whom  he 
may  come  in  contact — their  behavior  in  general,  in  school, 
their  manner  of  reciting  in  the  classroom,  their  actions  on  the 
street,  in  the  home,  at  church,  at  a  party,  in  any  situation 
where  groups  are  thrown  together.  I  have  frequently  watched 
a  group  of  high-school  pupils  on  their  way  to  school,  and  have 
noted  the  same  fashions  in  dress,  in  wearing  the  hair,  and  in 
slang  expressions.  If  one  wears  an  overcoat,  it  is  because  the 
rest  do,  not  because  necessary;  if  one  carries  an  umbrella,  all 
must  do  so.  Sometimes  all  ride  in  the  street-car;  at  other 
times  every  one  walks  and  one  would  scorn  to  ride.  Just  now 
all  carry  their  lunches  in  a  crumpled  paper  sack  folded  in  an 
approved  fashion  and  carried  in  a  certain  way.  One  would 
stay  out  of  school  rather  than  carry  a  neat  lunch-box.  The 
songs  they  sing,  the  phrases  they  use,  the  movies  they  attend, 
the  shows  they  praise  or  taboo,  the  popular  football  heroes 
they  acclaim,  the  things  they  approve  or  decry,  all  are  largely 
the  product  of  unstudied  imitation  which  they  have  caught 
from  the  crowd. 

It  is  usually  believed  that  children  imitate  their  elders,  but 
a  moment's  consideration  shows  this  to  be  a  superficial  ob- 
servation. Whom  do  the  high-schoolers  imitate  in  their 
dress,  their  speech,  their  attitudes,  and  their  prejudices? 
Whom  do  the  college  freshmen  copy?  There  is  certainly  a 
wide  distance  between  the  dress  of  the  freshman  and  the  pro- 
fessor. In  the  ideals  espoused,  the  conduct  followed,  who  are 
their  patterns?  One  who  knows  a  college  campus  or  class- 
room is  not  misled  into  the  wrong  answer.  The  youth's  every- 
day associates  are  the  ones  that  slowly  but  surely  determine 
his  actions,  his  habits,  his  ideals. 

Imitation  in  Developing  Personality. — The  teacher  needs  to 
observe  carefully  the  effects  of  varying  impressions  upon  the 


232    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

class.  Warner  tells  us:  *  ''The  sight  of  your  movement  brings 
into  activity  the  same  combination  of  nerve-centres  as  you 
use.  This  is  one  means  by  which  you  determine  action  in 
the  child's  brain."  Because  children  are  such  imitators  of 
each  other  they  unconsciously  secure  some  sort  of  education. 
Care  must  be  exercised  to  exclude  undesirable  companions, 
those  with  either  physical,  mental,  or  moral  defects.  Cases 
are  numerous  in  which  those  afflicted  with  diseases  such  as 
St.  Vitus's  dance  (chorea)  have  caused  others  to  become  af- 
flicted solely  through  imitation.  Stammering,  hysterics,  and 
even  ordinary  fright  become  epidemic.  Children  possessing 
tendencies  toward  excitability  and  overmobility  should  be 
with  children  having  good  self-control.  By  imitation  of  these 
latter  the  pathological  tendencies  may  disappear.  Yawning, 
gaping,  coughing,  restlessness  may  become  infectious  in  a 
class.  Every  word,  gesture,  peculiarity  of  walk,  facial  ex- 
pression, intonation  of  voice,  are  certain  to  be  absorbed  and 
unconsciously  or  purposely  represented  in  action.  Thus  hab- 
its of  language  become  universalized  in  a  school  or  commu- 
nity, a  certain  type  of  manner  becomes  typical  of  a  school, 
certain  methods  of  study  and  recitation  often  characterize  a 
system  or  schools.  In  one  place  recitations  are  clear-cut,  in- 
telligently rendered,  while  in  another  school  they  are  always 
disconnected,  mumbled,  and  indistinct,  and  rendered  with  no 
apparent  pride.  Even  an  excellent  teacher  cannot  model 
things  to  his  own  liking  if  the  custom  does  not  sanction  his 
way.  A  splendid  teacher  once  failed  in  a  country  school  be- 
cause he  insisted  on  having  boys  remove  their  hats  during 
the  recess  while  in  the  schoolroom.  Each  one  simply  imi- 
tated a  prevailing  custom,  and  they  rebelled  against  any  de- 
viation. Put  the  most  obstinate  of  those  boys  in  a  school 
where  custom  dictated  baring  the  head  indoors,  and  see  how 
quickly  he  would  uncover,  with  never  a  word  of  opposition. 

Through  imitation  the  child  is  to  absorb  many  of  the  most 
valuable  lessons  of  life.     All  the  elements  that  go  to  make  up 
what  we  term  "bearing"  or  "personaUty"  are  largely  prod- 
*Mental  Faculty,  p.  89. 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  233 

ucts  of  imitation.  To  a  large  extent  one's  character  is  deter- 
mined imitatively  by  the  company  one  keeps.  It  is  fre- 
quently true  that  ideals  of  life  and  conduct  are  imitative  re- 
flections more  than  particular  intellectual  acquisitions.  Emo- 
tions are  especially  contagious.  Attitudes  toward  life  and 
its  various  problems  are  taken  on  through  inoculation  when 
the  reasons  therefor  are  not  at  all  apparent.  As  nearly  all 
the  world's  great  wrong-doings,  resulting  in  robbery,  embez- 
zlement, drunkenness,  poverty,  pauperism,  vice,  divorce,  mur- 
der, and  suicide,  result  from  a  distorted  view  of  life,  duty,  and 
happiness,  it  becomes  highly  important  to  radiate  ideals  which 
shall  counteract  the  distorted  ones. 

Idealistic  Imitation. — Not  only  do  we  imitate  directly  others 
around  us,  but  we  also  do  many  things  indirectly  because  of 
ideals  gained  through  sermons,  lectures,  chance  remarks,  and 
through  reading.  We  are  apt  to  discount  the  potency  of 
reading  to  determine  conduct.  It  is  indeed  true  that  much 
of  the  youth's  reading  seems  to  make  little  impression  upon 
his  conduct.  But  when  we  so  interpret  it  we  are  thinking  of 
immediate  responses.  It  may  be  that  the  ideas  absorbed  to- 
day will  not  express  themselves  to-day,  nor  to-morrow,  nor 
next  week;  but  they  may  be  the  mainspring  of  action  next 
year  or  ten  years  hence.  If  not  inhibited  by  counter-tenden- 
cies from  opposing  ideas,  they  will  inevitably  result  in  conduct 
that  becomes  a  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  character  itself. 
The  prose  poet  has  said:  ''Sow  a  thought  and  reap  an  act; 
sow  an  act  and  reap  a  habit;  sow  a  habit  and  reap  a  character; 
sow  a  character  and  reap  a  destiny." 

Even  long  after  childhood  days  ''unconscious  education'* 
is  the  most  influential  in  shaping  destiny.  We  think  of  edu- 
cation as  the  resultant  of  studied  set  lessons,  but  this  is  be- 
cause we  are  prone  to  measure  education  by  stereotyped  facts 
that  can  be  displayed  on  examination  days.  But  the  really 
vital  education  is  that  which  results  in  modes  of  behavior, 
attitudes,  feelings,  prejudices,  wills,  strivings — character. 

Social  Responsibilities  because  of  Imitation. — The  laws  of 
imitation  place  great  responsibilities  upon  every  individual  in 


234    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

society.  Every  one,  unless  isolated  even  more  than  Robinson 
Crusoe,  is  a  part  of  somebody's  environment.  Every  action 
has  some  influence  upon  others  as  well  as  upon  oneself ! 
Thus  is  each  one  his  brother's  keeper.  When  we  come  to 
understand  the  influence  of  others  upon  us,  the  influence  other 
children  exert  upon  our  children,  we  shall  then  be  more  solici- 
tous to  secure  only  wholesome,  elevating  surroundings  for  our- 
selves and  our  children.  We  shall  be  almost  as  deeply  con- 
cerned to  educate  our  neighbors'  children  properly  as  we  are 
about  our  own,  for  in  the  widest  sense  we  cannot  educate  a 
given  individual  properly  without  suitable  environment. 
Every  man  is  a  product  of  the  time  in  which  he  lives.  A  great 
statesman  cannot  be  produced  without  a  great  state.  A  great 
scholar  rarely  lives  in  an  unscholarly  time  or  place.  There- 
fore every  parent  who  wishes  to  educate  his  children  in  intel- 
lectuality, morality,  and  virtue  must  seek  those  conditions  as 
an  environment.  No  one  who  desires  to  educate  his  children 
properly  moves  to  the  slums;  no,  he  moves  where  culture  is 
highest,  not  because  good  teachers  are  not  obtainable  for  the 
slum  districts,  but  because  of  all  other  contributory  factors. 
While  many  seek  these  conditions,  few  realize  their  duty  in 
creating  them. 

Imitation  in  School  Government. — It  has  been  said  that  as 
the  teacher  so  is  the  school,  and  no  doubt  Channing  was  right 
when  he  said  that  "a  boy  compelled  for  six  hours  a  day  to  see 
the  countenance  and  hear  the  voice  of  a  fretful,  unkind,  hard, 
or  passionate  man  is  placed  in  a  school  of  vice."  But  I  am 
inclined  to  think  we  overrate  the  teacher's  influence  and  un- 
derrate the  influence  of  pupil  companions.  A  study  of  what 
children  imitate  most  has  revealed  to  me  that  children  imitate 
other  children,  usually  those  slightly  older  than  themselves, 
more  than  they  do  adults.  Let  a  few  children  become  inter- 
ested in  some  new  game  or  play,  and  it  usually  spreads  over 
a  city.  From  time  to  time  there  are  epidemics  of  playing  mar- 
bles, tops,  circus,  jack-o'-lanterns,  football,  baseball,  shinny. 

The  particular  code  of  honor  in  a  school,  the  things  that 
are  tabooed  and  the  general  moral  tone  of  the  school  also  de- 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  235 

pend  far  more  upon  the  school  community  than  upon  the 
teacher.  We  send  our  boys  to  be  educated  by  the  school- 
master, but  the  schoolboys  educate  them.  The  moral  tone  of 
a  school  Is  very  much  affected  by  imitation.  If  a  teacher  can 
secure  the  co-operation  of  a  few  real  leaders,  it  does  much 
more  to  change  the  moral  tone  than  any  amount  of  lecturing 
or  preaching.  Get  a  few  leaders  started  and  the  effect  spreads 
like  contagion.  The  teacher  must  always  see  to  it  that  the 
leaders,  those  whose  opinion  is  deemed  important,  are  on  her 
side.  Public  opinion  is  largely  the  opinion  of  leaders.  This 
is  true  in  poHtics,  and  equally  true  in  school  circles.  This 
public  opinion  is  a  most  powerful  shibboleth.  Let  the  teach- 
ers keep  the  leaders  sympathetic.  She  can  then  run  their 
opinions  into  any  desired  mould.  With  the  leaders  enlisted 
on  her  side  and  the  cause  of  right,  and  school  government  is 
an  easy  affair.  The  hearts  of  the  multitude  cannot  be  entirely 
changed  all  at  once.  Other  counter-influences  may  be  strong, 
but  when  once  the  wide-spread  influence  of  imitation  is  recog- 
nized, when  it  is  comprehended  that  we  are  to  imitate  whether 
we  will  or  not,  there  will  be  much  more  attention  paid  to  the 
"copy"  that  is  placed  or  allowed  before  children. 

It  is  not  a  new  thing  for  solicitous  parents  to  try  to  keep 
bad  and  vicious  companions  away  from  their  children,  but 
they  usually  think  little  of  the  positive  effects  of  good  copy. 
The  right  kind  of  playmates  for  a  child  in  its  impressionable 
years  may  save  many  school  bills  and  even  doctors'  bills.  It 
takes  years  and  many  schoolmasters  to  teach  what  ought  to 
have  been  gained  silently,  surely,  unthinkingly  from  right  sur- 
roundings, and  to  help  unlearn  the  undesirable  things  learned 
by  the  same  inevitable  process. 

Take,  for  example,  the  code  witn  respect  to  "tattling." 
While  any  fair-minded  person  would  denounce  the  kind  of 
tattling  which  informs  for  the  selfish  satisfaction  of  getting 
the  other  fellow  punished,  yet  not  to  inform  against  an  enemy 
to  common  welfare  is  to  be  a  silent  partner  to  the  crime.  This 
was  emphasized  during  the  World  War.  To  be  an  informer 
against  all  enemies  of  the  public  is  one  of  the  most  fundamen- 


236         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

tal  civic  virtues.  Yet  a  foolish  misinterpretation  of  the  lit- 
eral expression  has  become  a  false  code  of  honor,  fostered  in 
school  and  perpetuated  in  civic  life.  Many  shrink  from  at- 
tempting to  right  public  abuses  because  the  injury  has  not 
become  so  personal  as  to  be  felt.  The  public  business  becomes 
no  part  of  any  individual's  business.  As  In  school  they  felt 
it  to  be  the  teacher's  business  to  right  evils,  they  now  turn  it 
entirely  over  to  the  police,  and  then  grumble  at  the  corrup- 
tion in  public  affairs.  One  can  be  a  flagrant  sinner  "by  mind- 
ing his  own  business."  There  are  sins  of  omission  as  well  as 
of  commission.  Our  greatest  civic  sin  is  neglect  of  the  pub- 
lic weal.  While  we  fold  our  hands,  stop  our  ears,  and  blind 
our  eyes  the  council  barters  away  the  franchise,  the  sheriff 
pockets  his  usurious  fees,  the  tax-collector  keeps  all  that  sticks 
to  his  fingers,  the  money  kings  hide  their  taxable  property, 
the  corporations  swindle  the  patient  public,  and  the  patent- 
medicine  man  saps  the  life  and  vigor  from  the  commonwealth. 
We  know^  all  these  things  are  going  on,  but  we  believe  in 
"minding  our  own  business."  Children  must  be  taught  in 
school  that  one  who  permits  without  protest  any  wrongs 
against  the  welfare  of  the  school  Is  a  public  malefactor. 

Nearly  all  the  rules,  regulations,  and  machinery  of  govern- 
ment in  school  are  In  point  of  importance  and  efficiency  of 
minor  worth  when  compared  with  the  public  opinion  of  the 
school.  The  school  Is  what  its  pupils  sanction.  The  teacher 
who  succeeds  In  Inculcating  In  the  pupils'  minds  high  ideals  of 
the  relations  the  pupils  should  bear  toward  the  school  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  government.  Many  schools,  regrettably, 
have  never  glimpsed  true  ideals  of  these  relations,  because  the 
narrow  teachers  themselves  have  not  comprehended  them. 
The  teacher  who  comports  himself  as  a  policeman  and  detec- 
tive is  surely  imitated  In  his  ideals,  and  usually  plays  a  sorry 
game. 

We  hear  much  about  self-government  In  schools.  The  ten- 
dency is  to  evolve  a  complex  system  of  machinery  whereby 
the  pupils  may  themselves  enact  and  execute  laws  and  even 
punish  offenders  for  their  infraction.     No  system  of  school 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  237 

governmental  machinery,  however,  can  secure  self-govern- 
ment of  itself.  The  only  secret  worth  striving  to  discover  is 
that  of  securing  a  feeling  of  mutual  ownership  of  the  school. 
That  secured,  the  machinery  is  rendered  largely  unnecessary. 
Pupils  are  too  apt  to  feel  no  sense  of  partnership  in  the  school 
and  no  sense  of  responsibility  for  its  good  name.  School  pub- 
lic opinion  has  thrown  the  whole  responsibility  upon  the 
teachers,  and  instead  of  feeling  happy  in  the  success  of  the 
school  the  pupils  have  even  felt  a  secret  delight  in  the  failure 
of  what  is  to  them  some  one  else's  affair.  False  codes  of  honor 
are  by  no  means  uncommon.  Many  a  boy  who  would  sooner 
cut  off  his  right  hand  than  inform  the  authorities  of  offenses 
against  their  mutual  welfare  would  not  hesitate  to  "crib" 
from  his  neighbors  on  examination.  No  teacher  can  abolish 
cribbing,  hazing,  or  bullying  by  an  edict,  but  once  let  him 
create  a  public  opinion  against  it,  and  woe  to  the  offender. 
Even  little  children  will  often  commit  flagrant  disobedience 
of  parents'  commands  rather  than  disregard  the  mandates  of 
the  public  opinion  of  their  own  circle. 

We  are  told  that  Mrs.  Jacob  A.  Riis  was  a  past  master  in 
utilizing  imitation  in  reforming  gangs  of  hoodlums  in  New 
York  and  Brooklyn.  She  would  go  to  the  leaders  of  the  gangs, 
who  might  have  their  rendezvous  under  the  sidewalks  or  in 
back-alley  shacks,  and  say  to  the  leaders:  "I  would  like  to 
come  to  your  meetings  and  become  a  member  of  your  club." 
Because  of  her  winning,  magnetic  personality,  they  would 
allow  her  to  go.  She  would  enlist  the  help  of  the  leader,  who 
forthwith  became  her  valiant  knight,  vowing  vengeance  upon 
any  who  did  anything  to  displease  his  heroine.  The  crowd 
would  then  all  swear  allegiance  to  their  leader. 

Public  Opinion  among  Boys. — William  Dean  Howells  has 
glimpsed  the  unseen  force  of  public  opinion  which  reigns  In 
the  boy's  world  and  has  given  us  a  delightful  picture  of  it  in 
A  Boy's  Town.     He  writes: 

Everywhere  and  always  the  world  of  boys  is  outside  of  the  laws  that 
govern  grown-up  communities,  and  it  has  its  unwritten  usages,  which 
are  handed  down  from  old  to  young,  and  perpetuated  on  the  same 


238    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

level  of  years,  and  are  lived  into  and  lived  out  of,  but  are  binding, 
through  all  personal  vicissitudes,  upon  the  great  body  of  boys  between 
6  and  1 2  years  old.  No  boy  can  violate  them  without  losing  his  stand- 
ing among  the  other  boys.  ...  He  must  do  this,  and  must  not  do 
that;  he  obeys,  but  he  does  not  know  why,  any  more  than  the  far- 
off  savages  from  whom  his  customs  seem  mostly  to  have  come.  .  .  . 
There  were  some  things  so  base  that  a  boy  could  not  do  them;  and 
what  happened  out-of-doors,  and  strictly  within  the  boy's  world,  had 
to  be  kept  sacredly  secret  among  the  boys.  For  instance,  if  you  had 
been  beguiled,  as  a  little  boy,  into  being  the  last  in  the  game  of  snap- 
the-whip,  and  the  snap  sent  you  rolling  head  over  heels  on  the  hard 
ground,  and  skinned  your  nose  and  tore  your  trousers,  you  could  cry 
from  the  pain  without  disgrace,  and  some  of  the  fellows  would  come 
up  and  try  to  comfort  you;  but  you  were  bound  in  honor  not  to  appeal 
to  the  teacher,  and  you  were  expected  to  use  every  device  to  get  the 
blood  off  you  before  you  went  in,  and  to  hide  the  tear  in  your  trousers. 
Of  course,  the  tear  and  the  blood  could  not  be  kept  from  the  anxious 
eyes  at  home,  but  even  there  you  were  expected  not  to  say  just  what 
boys  did  it. 

They  were  by  no  means  the  worst  boys  who  did  such  things,  but 
only  the  most  thoughtless.  StiU,  there  was  a  public  opinion  in  the 
Boy's  Town  which  ruled  out  certain  tricks,  and  gave  the  boys  who 
played  them  the  name  of  being  ''mean."  One  of  these  was  boring  a 
hole  in  the  edge  of  your  school-desk  to  meet  a  shaft  sunk  from  the  top, 
which  you  filled  with  slate-pencil  dust.  Then,  if  you  were  that  kind 
of  a  boy,  you  got  some  little  chap  to  put  his  eye  close  to  the  shaft,  with 
the  hope  of  seeing  Niagara  Falls,  and  set  your  lips  to  the  hole  in  the 
edge,  and  blew  his  eye  full  of  pencil-dust.  This  was  mean;  and  it  was 
also  mean  to  get  some  unsuspecting  child  to  close  the  end  of  an  elder- 
wood  tube  with  his  thumb,  and  look  hard  at  you,  while  you  showed  him 
Germany.  You  did  this  by  pulling  a  string  below  the  tube,  and  run- 
ning a  needle  into  his  thumb.  My  boy  discovered  Germany  in  this 
way  long  before  he  had  any  geographical  or  political  conception  of  it. 

I  do  not  know  why,  if  these  abominable  cruelties  were  thought  mean, 
it  was  held  lawful  to  cover  a  stone  with  dust  and  get  a  boy,  not  in 
the  secret,  to  kick  the  pile  over  with  his  bare  foot.  It  was  perfectly 
good  form,  also,  to  get  a  boy,  if  you  could,  to  shut  his  eyes,  and  then 
lead  him  into  a  mud-puddle  or  a  thicket  of  briers  or  nettles,  or  to  fool 
him  in  any  heartless  way,  such  as  promising  to  pump  easy  when  he 
put  his  mouth  to  the  pump-spout,  and  then  coming  down  on  the  pump- 
handle  with  a  rush  that  flooded  him  with  water  and  sent  him  off  blow- 
ing the  tide  from  his  nostrils  like  a  whale.  Perhaps  these  things  were 
permitted  because  the  sight  of  the  victim's  suffering  was  so  funny. 
Half  the  pleasure  in  fighting  wasps  or  bumblebees  was  in  killing  them 


LEARNING   THROUGH   IMITATION  239 

and  destroying  their  nests;  the  other  half  was  in  seeing  the  fellows  get 
stung.  If  you  could  fool  a  fellow  into  a  mass-meeting  of  bumblebees, 
and  see  him  lead  them  off  in  a  steeplechase,  it  was  right  and  fair  to  do 
so.  But  there  were  other  cases  in  which  deceit  was  not  allowable. 
For  instance,  if  you  appeared  on  the  playground  with  an  apple,  and 
all  the  boys  came  whooping  around,  "You  know  me,  Jimmy!"  ''You 
know  your  uncle !"  ''You  know  your  grandfather ! "  and  you  began  to 
sell  out  bites  at  three  pins  for  a  lady-bite  and  six  pins  for  a  hog-bite, 
and  a  boy  bought  a  lady-bite  and  then  took  a  hog-bite,  he  was  held  in 
contempt,  and  could  by  no  means  pass  it  off  for  a  good  joke  on  you;  it 
was  considered  mean. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Distinguish  between  conscious,  purposive  imitation  and  reflex  imita- 
tion. 2.  Think  of  some  habits  you  have  acquired  by  intentionally  imitat- 
ing some  one  else.  3.  Think  of  some  habits  you  have  "picked  up"  unin- 
tentionally (a)  by  accidentally  imitating  yourself  and  {h)  by  accidentally 
imitating  others.  4.  In  which  manner  have  you  acquired  the  largest  fund 
of  habits?  5.  Analyze  the  place  of  imitation  in  learning  handwriting. 
(Be  sure  to  recognize  the  place  of  autoimitation  in  the  process.)  6.  To 
what  extent  may  imitation  be  employed  in  teaching  (a)  foreign  languages, 
{h)  composition,  (c)  drawing  ?  7.  Show  the  place  of  imitation  in  our  every- 
day thinking.  8.  Have  you  noticed  the  effects  of  imitation  in  creating  a 
school  atmosphere?  9.  Of  what  value  is  imitation  as  a  means  of  promot- 
ing school  government?  10.  Notice  boys  and  girls  in  school  and  on  the 
way  to  school.  Note  several  things  they  imitate  very  slavishly.  11. 
Have  you  ever  observed  any  "propaganda"  of  any  kind,  good  or  bad, 
spread  just  to  cause  people  to  imitate  an  attitude  of  mind?  12.  What 
agencies  are  most  powerful  in  securing  imitation  and  creating  public 
Whom  do  children  imitate  most? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XVI. 

2.  Tanner,  The  Child:  His  Thinking,  Feeling,  and  Doing,  chap.  XV. 

3.  O'Shea,  Dynamic  Factors  in  Education,  chaps.  VI,  VII. 

4.  Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  chaps.  IX,  X,  XI,  XII. 

5.  Norsworthy  and  Whitley,  Psychology  of  Childhood.     See  Index. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND  EXPRESSION 

Popular  Meaning  of  Imagination. — While  the  imagination 
may  be  concerned  with  the  creation  of  air-castles,  its  most 
fundamental  process  consists  in  repicturing  objects  which  have 
been  actually  perceived  through  the  senses.  According  to  the 
popular  meaning,  imagination  means  fancy,  thinking  of  things 
that  do  not  actually  exist.  We  sometimes  indulge  in  day- 
dreams in  which  we  allow  the  mind  to  wander  unchecked  from 
one  fanciful  idea  to  another.  Sometimes  we  experience  illu- 
sions in  which  we  fancy  that  we  see,  hear,  or  feel  something 
which  in  reality  had  no  existence.  Again  our  memories  often 
play  us  tricks  causing  us  to  think  that  we  have  had  certain 
experiences  when  we  have  not.  In  all  of  these  illustrations 
we  speak  of  the  mental  states  as  cases  of  imagination.  This 
will  pass  very  well  for  very  general  meanings  of  imagination, 
but  for  educational  purposes  we  need  a  much  more  accurate, 
scientific  definition. 

Scientific  Meaning  of  Imagination. — Look  at  your  pencil, 
touch  it,  or  allow  it  to  drop  on  the  floor.  While  you  see  it, 
touch  it,  or  hear  it,  you  are  at  that  moment  perceiving  it  or 
receiving  a  percept  of  it.  Look  away  from  the  pencil  and 
you  now  have  a  picture  of  it.  See  if  you  can  represent  the 
sound  of  it  as  it  fell  to  the  floor;  the  weight  of  it  as  it  lay  in 
the  hand;  or  the  smell  and  taste  of  the  cedar-wood.  See  if 
you  can  recall  definitely  the  appearance  of  a  silver  dollar.  See 
if  you  can  hear  it  ring  as  it  is  dropped  on  the  table.  These 
revived  pictures  of  the  sight,  sound,  taste,  weight  are  not  per- 
cepts because  the  objects  are  not  present  to  any  of  the  senses. 
They  are  copies  of  the  percepts.  They  are  termed  images. 
Hence  the  definition :  Images  are  copies  of  percepts.  And  the 
process  of  imagination  should   then  be  defined  as  follows: 

240 


IMAGINATION  IN   LEARNING   AND    EXPRESSION     241 

Imagination  is  the  process  of  forming  images.     Titchener  says 
{Primer  of  Psychology,  p.  201): 

Imagination  is  imaging.  And  imaging  a  thing  is  thinking  of  it  in 
kind:  a  tree  is  imaged  by  a  visual  idea,  a  piano  note  by  an  idea  of 
hearing,  running  to  catch  a  train  by  a  tactual  idea;  the  ideas  are  the 
same  in  kind  as  the  perceptions  which  they  represent.  In  this  sense, 
a  mind  is  more  or  less  "imaginative"  according  as  it  is  better  or  worse 
constituted  to  think  of  things  in  kind;  and  the  primitive  mind — the 
mind  whose  ideas  are  photographic  copies  of  perceptions — is  the  most 
imaginative  of  all. 

Illustratibns. — Many  persons  think  they  imagine  clearly, 
when,  in  fact,  their  imagery  is  very  dull,  or  possibly  lacking. 
Try  to  picture  clearly  through  visual  Imagery  your  home  when 
away  from  It;  the  schoolhouse  and  the  church  you  attended 
as  a  child.  See  if  you  can  visualize  your  mother,  your  father, 
a  distant  friend.  Which  Is  clearer,  the  image  of  the  persons 
as  you  have  actually  seen  them,  or  the  Image  of  some  photo- 
graph of  them  ?  Why  ?  The  following  Is  a  capital  test  of 
visual  Imagery:  Imagine  a  three-Inch  cube.  Paint  it  blue. 
Imagine  it  cut  Into  Inch-cubes.  How  many  cuts  were  neces- 
sary ?  How  many  cubes  ?  How  many  cubes  have  no  paint  ? 
How  many  have  paint  on  one  side  only  ?  How  many  have 
paint  on  two  sides  only?  On  three  sides  only?  On  four 
sides  ?  Draw  from  memory  the  picture  of  the  print  of  a  dog's 
foot  as  it  appears  In  the  snow  or  mud.  Draw  from  memory 
a  hen's  track.  Draw  from  memory  your  watch-face.  Look 
for  a  moment  at  some  unfamiliar  wall-paper  or  decoration, 
and  then  turn  away  and  see  If  you  can  describe  or  draw  It. 

Try  to  revive  the  exact  sound  of  a  friend's  voice;  the  sound 
of  the  old  school-bell;  the  music  of  "America"  as  sung  by  a 
chorus,  as  played  on  a  piano,  on  a  violin,  by  an  orchestra,  or 
by  a  brass  band.  Revive  the  sensations  produced  by  filing  a 
saw,  a  step  on  the  walk,  or  the  splashing  of  water.  If  a  prod- 
uct of  imagination,  each  revival  must  be  specific  and  con- 
crete. It  is  not  enough  to  know  that  we  have  heard  the 
music,  to  feel  that  we  could  reproduce  It,  or  to  be  sure  that 
we  should  recognize  It,  If  heard.     It  must  be  revived  In  con- 


242    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

sciousness  so  that  it  is  a  reproduction  of  what  has  actually 
been  experienced  in  sense-perception.  To  further  test  the 
power  of  imagery  try  to  image  the  odor  of  violets,  roses, 
onions,  old  books,  new-mown  hay,  or  a  clover-field.  How 
closely  do  the  images  approximate  reality?  Try  to  imagine 
the  taste  of  pickles,  coffee,  roast  beef.  Without  looking  at 
the  hand,  see  if  you  can  feel  a  glove  upon  it.  Think  of  an  ant 
crawling  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  or  a  fly  walking  over  the 
face.  Do  the  images  become  so  real  as  sometimes  to  become 
confused  with  actual  sensations?  How  would  it  feel  to  bite 
a  rusty  nail,  to  touch  a  snake  or  a  sand-bur  ? 

The  student  who  looks  through  the  microscope,  turns 
away,  and  draws  accurately  what  he  has  seen  must  have  a 
visual  image  in  his  mind  of  what  he  has  seen.  The  more  ac- 
curately he  can  represent  the  object,  the  more  perfect  his 
image.  Many  never  portray  well  what  they  have  seen  be- 
cause their  imagery  fades.  They  are  sometimes  unjustly  ac- 
cused of  not  seeing  accurately.  The  child  who  makes  an 
excursion  to  the  field,  forest,  or  quarry,  and  on  returning  re- 
vives pictures  of  what  he  has  experienced  is  imaging,  i.  e.,  is 
employing  the  imagination.  To  examine  a  hydrostatic  press, 
a  battery,  a  Wheatstone's  bridge,  a  clam,  a  crystal,  or  a  fern, 
and  then  to  recall  exactly  what  has  been  seen  is  to  imagine. 
To  Ksten  to  a  note  sounded  by  the  director's  tuning-fork  and 
then  hold  it  in  mind  long  enough  to  sound  the  same  is  to 
imagine.  To  examine  the  color  and  texture  of  a  piece  of  cloth 
and  then  to  go  to  the  store  without  the  sample  and  match  it 
is  to  hold  in  mind  an  image — to  imagine. 

The  musical  composer  must  hear  each  note  as  it  will  sound 
when  executed.  He  must  differentiate  the  various  parts  and 
hear  each  voice  or  each  instrument  as  it  will  appear  in  the 
rendition.  In  singing  it  is  necessary  to  image  the  sound  be- 
fore it  is  produced.  Thus  a  train  of  imagery  runs  in  advance 
of  the  actual  rendition.  If  a  discord  should  be  imaged  for  an 
instant,  that  discord  would  be  reproduced.  This  is  just  as 
certain  as  that  when  a  bicyclist  thinks  of  an  obstacle  he  is 
certain  to  steer  toward  it.     The  image  is  held  before  the  mind 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION     243 

and  largely  determines  execution.  The  architect  who  plans  a 
building  must  see  every  part  in  imagination  before  he  con- 
structs his  drawings.  The  carpenter  who  builds  without  a 
definite  pattern-drawing  must  see  each  room,  each  door,  each 
stairu^ay,  each  pipe  and  fixture  as  they  will  be  arranged,  if 
mistakes  are  to  be  avoided.  Try  some  time  to  imagine  a 
change  in  the  stairway  of  your  house,  a  change  in  the  roof 
or  the  furnace,  and  note  how  definitely  it  must  all  be  imaged. 
Consider  what  is  necessary  before  a  child  can  appreciate 
through  full  imagery  the  following: 

"O  robin  in  the  cherry-tree, 

I  hear  you  carolling  your  glee ! 
The  platform  where  you  lightly  tread 

Is  lighted  up  with  cherries  red, 
And  there  you  sit  among  the  boughs 

Like  Patti  at  the  opera-house." 

Relation  and  Difference  between  Memory  and  Imagina- 
tion.— It  will  be  necessary  to  distinguish  between  imagination 
and  memory.  As  we  shall  more  and  more  come  to  appreciate, 
mental  life  is  a  unity,  and  not  made  up  of  entirely  separate 
faculties  or  powers;  hence,  memory  and  imagination  will  be 
found  to  be  very  closely  related  forms  of  mental  life.  We 
shall  find,  moreover,  that  they  overlap  each  other.  In  their 
well-marked  higher  stages  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  two,  but  in  indefinite  stages  they  will  be  found  to  be  in- 
distinguishable. Distinguishing  between  memory  and  imag- 
ination, between  sensation  and  perception,  between  intellect 
and  will  are  much  like  making  exacting  distinctions  between 
plants  and  animals.  It  is  perfectly  easy  to  determine  to  which 
kingdoms  trees  and  horses  belong,  but  when  we  come  to 
sponges  and  the  protozoans  the  task  is  more  difficult  and  even 
baffling.  No  one  can  say  that  a  given  sensation  has  no  ele- 
ment of  perception  in  it,  nor  in  a  given  percept  can  one  en- 
tirely separate  the  perceptional  element  from  the  sensational. 
The  difference  between  memory  and  imagination  can  perhaps 
be  better  felt  than  expressed.     In  order  to  understand  the  dif- 


244         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

ferences  each  individual  must  experience  them  for  himself. 
Certain  hints  may  be  given,  however,  to  enable  the  learner  to 
identify  the  states  in  his  own  consciousness.  In  memory  we 
recognize  the  following  factors: 

registration    \  ,    ^ 

f    ^.  >  necessary  factors, 

retention        J 

reproduction  1 

recognition     \  possible  factors,  and  present  in  all  complete  memory. 

localization    J 

In  imagination  the  following  factors  are  to  be  considered: 

registration    ] 

retention         \  necessary  factors. 

reproduction  J 

1       ft*         (  possible  factors,  and  present  in  all  complete  imagination. 


We  can  image  only  individual  ideas,  not  concepts;  they  can 
be  remembered.  Again,  memory  deals  with  the  past  only. 
Imagination  deals  with  the  past,  present,  or  future.  One 
may  remember  his  yesterday's  dinner.  He  may  also  imagine 
it.  One  may  imagine  the  morrow's  dinner,  but  he  cannot 
remember  it.  He  has  not  experienced  it  and  cannot  there- 
fore recall  it.  Imagination  is  simply  a  more  vivid  form  of 
recall.  As  above  illustrated,  if  you  can  recall  or  produce  in 
mind  an  idea  of  an  object  so  vividly  that  it  seems  almost  as 
if  the  object  were  present,  then  you  have  an  image.  If  it 
is  dim  and  hazy  and  indefinite,  you  have  a  memory. 

Dream  Images  and  Illusions. — ^The  best  examples  of  im- 
agery come  to  us  in  dreams.  We  see  things,  hear  things, 
touch  things,  and  even  taste  and  smell  things  in  such  a  vivid 
way  that  they  seem  real.  For  the  time  they  are  just  as  vivid 
as  the  actual  experiences  would  be.  Temporarily  we  are  de- 
ceived into  believing  them  real.  Sometimes  similar  phenom- 
ena occur  in  normal  waking  life.     We  imagine  we  see  things, 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION     245 

hear  sounds,  such  as  voices,  or  bells,  etc.  We  imagine  we  feel 
things  when  there  is  no  stimulation  of  the  sense-organs. 
Usually  there  may  be  a  suggestive  factor  in  some  actual  sen- 
sations, but  the  images  that  arise  are  very  much  stronger  than 
the  stimulation  would  warrant.  Children,  savages,  and  su- 
perstitious people  are  prone  to  experience  hallucinations  upon 
the  suggestion  of  the  slightest  stimuli.  Darkness  and  lone- 
some places  heighten  the  suggestibility.  As  De  Quincey  says; 
**Many  children  have  a  power  of  painting,  as  it  were,  upon 
the  darkness  all  sorts  of  phantoms."  Insanity  is  little  else 
than  a  species  of  disordered  imagination.  The  abnormal 
mind,  possibly  through  suggestion,  sees  visions,  hears  voices, 
and  feels  touches,  which  in  a  sane  condition  would  not  be 
experienced. 

Types  of  Imagination. — Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
senses  employed,  there  are  as  many  types  of  imagination  as 
there  are  sense-perceptions.  When  we  image  in  terms  of  sight 
we  are  using  visual  imagination,  when  we  image  in  terms  of 
sound  we  are  using  auditory  imagination.  Touch  images  are 
in  the  realm  of  tactile  imagination,  taste  images  in  the  realm 
of  gustatory  imagination.  As  will  be  shown  in  a  succeeding 
paragraph,  these  powers  vary  in  different  individuals. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  combination  in  the  product  we 
may  speak  of  imagination  as  reproductive  and  productive  or 
constructive.  When  perceptions  are  revived  exactly  as  experi- 
enced, they  are  reproductive;  when  recombined  into  new 
wholes,  productive  or  constructive.  Of  course,  all  construc- 
tive imagination  depends  absolutely  upon  the  reproductive. 
The  degree  of  real  constructiveness  depends  upon  the  accu- 
racy of  the  reproduction  of  the  parts  and  the  consistency  and 
originality  of  the  new  whole.  Merely  recombining  with  con- 
sistency of  relations  does  not  indicate  a  high  degree  of  con- 
structive imagination.  Both  imagery  and  real  constructive 
thinking  are  necessary  to  real  constructive  imagination. 

Limitations  of  the  Imagination. — The  imagination  is  limited 
to  the  use  of  materials  already  in  the  mind.  Sense-perception 
must  furnish  the  elements,  the  raw  material  out  of  which  the 


246         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

imaginative  product  is  produced.  This  is  true  in  the  case  of 
the  highest  creative  imagination  as  well  as  the  lowest  form  of 
mechanical  combination.  It  may  be  stated  as  a  law  that  no 
product  can  he  imagined  the  elements  of  which  have  not  come 
through  sense-perception. 

Helen  Keller,  deaf  and  blind,  does  not  image  colors  or 
sounds  as  normal  persons  do.  Extravagant  newspaper  stories 
are  told  of  her  marvellous  powers  of  seeing  colors  through  her 
finger-tips  and  hearing  sounds  through  her  feet.  But  she  does 
not  in  reality  see  colors,  hear  tones,  or  even  imagine  them. 
She  says:  "I  talk  about  colors  as  if  they  were  realities  to  me, 
but  they  are  just  words."  These  facts  are  of  much  impor- 
tance in  education,  for  if  we  wish  to  have  pupils  imagine,  we 
must  be  sure  that  they  have  had  the  sense-perceptions. 

One  born  bhnd  cannot  imagine  color,  nor  one  born  deaf 
imagine  sound.  Among  the  blind  it  has  been  found  that  those 
who  became  blind  before  the  age  of  six  or  seven  never  dream 
of  colors,  while  those  deprived  of  sight  at  a  later  age  frequently 
have  dreams  in  which  color  is  a  factor.  The  necessity  for 
sense-elements  out  of  which  to  construct  the  new  picture  is 
well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  a  writer  of 
most  vivid  imagination.  In  a  visit  with  Mr.  Morritt,  Scott 
said  to  his  host  with  reference  to  some  facts  which  he  had 
given  to  Scott:  '*You  have  given  me  materials  for  a  romance; 
now  I  want  a  good  robber's  cave,  and  an  old  church  of  the 
right  sort."  "We  rode  out,"  says  Mr.  Morritt,  "and  he  found 
what  he  wanted  in  the  ancient  slate  quarries  of  Brignal  and 
the  ruined  abbey  of  Eggleston.  I  observed  him  noting  down 
even  the  peculiar  little  wild  flowers  and  herbs  that  acciden- 
tally grew  round  on  the  side  of  a  bold  crag  near  his  intended 
cave  of  Guy  Denzil;  and  could  not  help  saying  that,  as  he 
was  not  to  be  on  oath  in  his  work,  daisies,  violets,  and  prim- 
roses would  be  as  poetical  as  any  of  the  humbler  plants  he 
was  examining.  I  laughed,  in  short,  at  his  scrupulousness; 
but  I  understood  him  when  he  replied  that  in  nature  herself 
no  two  scenes  were  exactly  alike,  and  that  whoever  copied 
truly  what  was  before  his  eyes  would  possess  the  same  variety 
in  his  descriptions,  and  exhibit  apparently  an  imagination  as 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION     247 

boundless  as  the  range  of  nature  In  the  scenes  he  recorded; 
whereas  whoever  trusted  to  [constructive  and  not  accurate 
reproductive]  imagination  would  soon  find  his  own  mind  cir- 
cumscribed, and  contracted  to  a  few  favorite  images,  and  the 
repetition  of  these  would  sooner  or  later  produce  that  very- 
monotony  and  barrenness  which  had  always  haunted  a  de- 
scriptive poetry  in  the  hands  of  any  but  the  patient  worship- 
pers of  truth."     (Carpenter,  Mental  Physiology,  p.  492.) 

The  foregoing  also  illustrates  the  fact  that  in  the  best  so- 
called  imaginative  literature  the  finest  descriptions  are  more 
true  to  life  than  ideal.  The  salient  characteristics  which  have 
been  selected  for  the  scene  characterized  must  be  true  to  life. 
It  is  said  that  Scott's  characters  "are  felt  by  those  who  are 
well  acquainted  with  the  Scottish  life  of  the  past  to  be  so  in- 
tensely natural  that  every  one  of  them  might  have  been  a  real 
character.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  best  of  Dickens's  and 
of  Thackeray's  imaginary  constructions,  in  which  these  great 
humorists  have  so  completely  identified  themselves,  as  it 
were,  with  the  several  types  they  delineated,  as  to  make  each 
of  them  speak  and  act  as  he  (or  she)  would  have  done  in 
actual  life.  It  is  certain,  indeed,  that  most  of  these  (as  in 
Walter  Scott's  case)  are  developments  of  actual  types,  while 
those  which  are  purely  ideal — the  work  of  the  creative  rather 
than  of  the  constructive  imagination — lack  'flesh  and  blood 
reahty.'"     (Carpenter,  op.  cit.,  p.  502.) 

Burroughs  says  of  Tennyson: 

A  lady  told  me  she  was  once  walking  with  him  in  the  fields  when  they 
came  to  a  spring  that  bubbled  up  through  shifting  sands  in  a  very 
pretty  manner,  and  Tennyson,  in  order  to  see  exactly  how  the  spring 
behaved,  got  down  on  his  hands  and  knees  and  peered  a  long  time 
into  the  water.  The  incident  is  worth  repeating,  as  showing  how  in- 
tently a  great  poet  studies  nature. 

After  knowing  these  habits  of  the  great  poet,  we  can  read- 
ily understand  why  he  could  pen  such  an  exact  simile  in  the 
lines 

"arms  on  which  the  standing  muscle  sloped, 
As  slopes  a  wild  brook  o'er  a  little  stone, 
Running  too  vehemently  to  break  upon  it." 


248         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Individual  Differences. — There  are  manifestly  very  great 
individual  differences  in  the  power  of  imaging.  Some  pos- 
sess a  good  imagination  for  all  classes  of  sense-percepts,  others 
possess  remarkable  powers  in  a  certain  class,  as  sight,  and  still 
others  are  almost  devoid  of  any  powers  of  vivid  imagery. 
The  classic  investigations  of  Sir  Francis  Galton  for  the  first 
time  revealed  these  striking  individual  differences  in  mental 
processes.  To  the  psychologist  of  to-day  the  fact  that  people 
are  incredible  about  such  differences  is  the  strangest  thing. 
That  such  mental  differences  exist  is  no  more  strange  than  that 
some  people  are  tall,  some  short,  or  some  red-haired  and  some 
black-haired.  But  the  popular  mind  is  slow  to  recognize  that 
mind  is  the  greatest  variable  in  existence. 

Some  people  are  wofully  lacking  in  the  power  of  visualiza- 
tion. Such  persons  cannot  draw,  would  not  be  good  archi- 
tects or  designers,  can  invent  nothing,  and  probably  cannot 
build  anything  so  that  the  joints  and  parts  fit.  They  could 
not  make  a  success  of  real  geometry  study.  They  might  mem- 
orize demonstrations  but  not  fully  comprehend  them.  It  fre- 
quently happens  that  a  boy  is  a  great  success  in  algebraic 
mathematics  and  an  equal  failure  in  geometric  mathematics. 
Success  in  the  latter  demands  a  high  type  of  visualizing  power. 
Similarly  many  boys  bright  in  geometry,  drawing,  and  natural 
science  may  make  signal  failures  in  their  music.  To  achieve 
success  in  music  requires  especial  powers  of  auditory  imagery- 
Successful  designers  of  wall-paper,  carpet  patterns,  furniture, 
textile  patterns,  decorations,  fresco-painters,  milHners,  dress- 
makers, tailors,  architects,  and  inventors  must  all  have  good 
powers  of  visual  imagination.  One  who  possesses  special 
powers  of  visual  imagery  should  seek  an  occupation  giving 
opportunity  for  its  employment. 

The  possessor  of  a  notably  vivid  auditory  imagination  should 
turn  to  music,  language,  or  some  occupation  demanding  fine 
powers  of  auditory  discrimination.  No  one  has  ever  become 
a  skilled  linguist  without  ability  to  detect  fine  shades  of  sound 
differences  and  the  power  of  revival  through  imagery.  The 
possession  of  vivid  tactile  imagery  is  rare.     Frequently  it  is 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION      249 

developed  in  the  blind  because  of  the  lack  of  visual  imagery. 
To  be  able  to  revive  tactile  perceptions  accurately  is  a  rare 
gift.  The  great  surgeon  owes  his  skill  largely  to  this  power- 
Artistic  skill  in  drawing,  painting,  or  sculpture  depends  much 
upon  tactile  imagery.  Inventors,  architects,  and  landscape- 
gardeners  owe  their  success  largely  to  visual  imagery. 

The  great  musical  composer  must  hear  every  instrument 
and  every  voice  and  every  note  to  be  produced  by  each  before 
he  really  composes  the  new  production  of  his  imagination. 
Mossosays: 

An  able  dramatic  writer  once  told  me  that  when  he  composes  he 
has  to  shut  himself  up  in  his  study  because  he  is  obliged  to  make  his 
characters  continually  talk  aloud.  He  receives  them  as  if  on  the 
stage,  shakes  hands  with  them,  offers  them  a  chair,  follows  them  in 
every  little  gesture,  laughs  or  cries  with  them,  as  occasion  demands. 
When  he  writes,  he  always  hears  the  voices  of  his  actors. 

Children's  Imagination. — Oftentimes  children  are  said  to 
have  better  imagination  than  adults.  This  is  true  only  in  re- 
lation to  vividness.  While  the  child's  imagination  is  very 
vivid,  it  is  very  inaccurate.  Children's  stories  are  vivid  but 
incoherent.  One  of  the  things  training  should  do  is  to  increase 
accuracy,  that  is,  consistency. 

The  child  usually  possesses  vivid  imagery,  but  the  images 
lack  accuracy.  The  child  also  lacks  voluntary  control  of  his 
images  and  trains  of  thought.  Consequently,  the  child's  fancy 
is  flitting,  incoherent,  inconsistent,  and  ineffective.  The  child 
thinks  out  very  fanciful  stories,  but  they  would  hardly  make 
a  consistent  piece  of  fiction.  It  is  only  with  effort  and  through 
training  that  the  adult  is  able  to  control  thoroughly  his  imagi- 
nation. It  is  erroneous  to  regard  the  child's  imagination  as 
being  better  or  stronger  than  that  of  the  adult.  The  unbridled 
play  of  fancy  in  the  child  causes  his  ideas  to  run  riot,  and  as 
imagination  is  so  frequently  made  identical  with  fancy,  his 
imagination  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  stronger  than  that  of 
the  adult. 

Throughout  childhood,  while  sense-perceptions  are  relatively 


250         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

stronger  than  any  other  powers,  all  forms  of  sense  imagery  are 
very  vivid.  So  vivid  are  the  child's  imaginations,  and  so  little 
reflective  is  he,  that  illusions  are  easily  created.  The  child  is 
extremely  suggestible,  i.  e.,  he  easily  seizes  upon  the  merest 
sign  and  through  his  vivid  imagery  builds  up  creations  which 
would  not  appear  to  more  mature  persons.  Careful  studies 
have  been  made  on  the  suggestibility  of  children.  It  has  been 
found  that  children  can  be  caused  to  see  things,  hear  things, 
smell,  taste,  and  touch  things  that  have  no  objective  existence. 
The  word  or  some  sign  was  sufficient  to  arouse  the  brain  cen- 
tre controlling  the  particular  function.  (See  Maurice  H. 
Small  on  ''The  Suggestibility  of  Children,"  Pedagogical  Semi- 
nary, 4:  176-220.)  The  degree  of  suggestibility  is  greatest  in 
the  first  grade  and  decreases  with  age.  That  is,  imaginative 
products  are  much  more  often  mistaken  for  real  perceptions 
in  early  childhood  than  in  later  life. 

This  child-world  is  not  a  product  of  creative  imagination, 
but  one  of  reproductive  imagination.  His  world  is  a  reflection 
of  the  experiences  he  has  been  able  to  drink  in.  I  have  no 
evidence  that  there  are  great  flights  of  fancy  in  which  inex- 
perienced scenes  and  situations  are  marshalled  together.  The 
child  plays  with  dolls,  and  although  these  often  crude  objects 
are  imaginatively  made  instinct  with  life,  yet  the  child  does 
with  them  and  has  them  do  only  what  she  has  seen  her  mother 
or  the  nurse  do  with  the  baby.  The  little  mischiefs  play 
school,  and  in  so  doing  impersonate  different  individuals. 
One  assumes  the  role  of  teacher  while  the  others  are  pupils. 
The  play  pupils  (imitating)  sit  obedient  to  the  dictates  of  the 
teacher,  with  now  and  then  an  (imitative)  infraction  of  the 
rules.  They  are  punished  in  an  approved  (imitative)  fashion, 
i.  e.,  in  the  fashion  which  the  real  teacher  of  their  acquaintance 
punishes.  They  seldom  assume  roles  not  imitative.  Sully 
says  that  the  "impulse  to  invent  imaginary  surroundings"  is 
very  common.  In  fact,  he  denominates  all  plays  which  are 
dominated  by  the  imagination  as  creative  or  inventive. 
Through  my  own  personal  observations  I  am  not  able  to  con- 
firm this  position.     Moreover,  I  have  failed  to  find  in  all  of 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION    251 

Sully's  or  Baldwin's  examples  of  imitation  any  that  give  evi- 
dence of  much,  if  any,  inventiveness  on  the  part  of  children. 
In  childish  lies  we  have  some  inventions  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  consequences,  but  during  play  the  child  is  attempting 
to  mirror  truthfully  the  world  as  he  understands  it.  To  be 
sure,  the  child  builds  perfect  products  from  the  crudest  mate- 
rials; a  stick  or  a  chair  or  his  own  body  serve  equally  well  to 
be  transformed  into  a  dashing  steed.  There  are  no  obstacles 
between  the  raw  material  and  the  flawless  product.  His  in- 
ventive powers  are  little  taxed  in  the  transformation.  He  pic- 
tures a  desired  end  and  presto !  it  is  secured. 

In  playing  with  her  dolls  the  little  girl,  though  living  a  life 
which  she  knows  is  make-believe,  is  a  faithful  imitator  of  the 
mother  or  nurse.  The  little  mother  of  four  summers  is  heard 
to  say:  "Oh,  mercy !  baby  must  have  a  clean  dress  on;  but  all 
are  in  the  wash.  Does  you  want  your  cloak  on  too  ?  "  When 
a  child  harnesses  the  chairs,  calls  them  horses,  and  makes 
himself  the  driver,  he  imitates  very  closely  the  action  of  the 
real  driver,  whom  he  has  seen.  A  child  who  has  never  seen 
equestrians  will  never  ride  an  imaginary  broomstick  horse.  A 
boy  whose  father  had  a  lariat  and  used  it  in  lassoing  horses 
was  continually  seen  with  a  noosed  rope  playing  at  the  cap- 
ture of  animals. 

Because  of  the  vivid  manner  in  which  children  image  things, 
a  caution  needs  to  be  given  against  telling  the  child  things 
which  will  be  magnified  into  terrorizing  objects.  All  stories 
of  bad  man,  the  bogie,  big  bear  that  will  catch  you,  wolves, 
tramps,  robbers,  or  future  punishment,  should  be  religiously 
avoided.  Many  children  are  made  timid  and  retiring  through- 
out Ufe  because  of  injudicious  stories  of  bogie-men  and  spooks. 
If  the  child  could  understand  that  they  are  fiction  he  would 
not  be  troubled,  but  imagination  becomes  belief,  and  often  a 
belief  haunts  one  as  a  lifelong  spectre.  Even  stories  of  such 
harmless  and  well-disposed  genii  as  Kris  Kringle  or  Santa 
Claus  should  be  told  properly. 

This  great  activity  and  vividness  of  the  child's  imagination, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  every  imagined  product  deepens  im- 


252         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

pressions  on  the  brain  and  in  the  same  way  that  original  per- 
ceptions do,  suggests  that  this  power  should  contribute  much 
to  the  education  of  the  child.  Not  only  may  intellectual  les- 
sons be  reinforced,  but  we  may  emphasize  if  not  actually 
create  moral  tendencies  by  stimulating  the  child's  imagination 
in  right  directions.  Just  as  bodily  health  or  disease  may  be 
induced  through  the  imagination,  may  we  not  induce  mental 
health  or  disease  by  imaginative  stimulation  ?  Ideas  held  be- 
fore the  mind  tend  to  result  in  the  corresponding  activities, 
hence  the  desirability  of  holding  only  correct  ideas  (ideals) 
before  the  mind.  Harboring  immoral  imaginations  will  tend 
to  convert  them  into  beliefs,  and  we  are  what  we  believe. 
How  to  control  properly  the  imagination  is  a  question  second 
in  importance  to  no  other  in  the  realm  of  intellectual  training. 

What  Training  Involves. — Training  the  imagination  may 
concern  itself  with  either  the  increasing  of  a  power  of  vivid 
recall  or  with  the  control  of  the  train  of  imagery  into  desired 
channels  and  thus  lead  toward  the  creation  of  new  and  original 
combinations.  From  the  discussion  of  the  psychological 
meaning  of  the  imagination  it  can  readily  be  inferred  that  the 
key  to  its  training  lies  in  the  proper  development  of  sense-per- 
ception. To  formally  state  it,  there  are  requisite:  (i)  An  op- 
portunity for  abundant  sensory  experience;  (2)  judicious  gui- 
dance and  direction  along  proper  channels ;  (3)  sufficient  exer- 
cise in  reviving  actual  experiences;  (4)  practice  in  building 
accurately  imaginary  pictures  painted  by  another,  as  in  lit- 
erature, geographical  descriptions,  etc.;  (5)  attempts  at  con- 
structive imagination. 

A  person  with  a  well-developed  imagination  can  repicture 
clearly,  vividly,  and  accurately  a  great  variety  of  perceptions 
which  have  been  gained  through  personal  experiences.  He 
also  has  the  ability  to  recombine  his  imagery  so  as  to  construct 
new  pictures  out  of  the  elements  of  reproductive  images.  A 
well-trained  power  of  imagination  enables  the  possessor  in 
addition  to  voluntarily  hold  before  the  mind  any  selected 
images  and  to  exclude  others.  Through  voluntary  selection 
of  imagery  the  trained  individual  is  able  to  reproduce  his  im- 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION     253 

agery  for  advantageous  consideration  and  to  recombine  ele- 
ments into  logical,  consistent  trains  of  imagery  and  thus  lead 
to  the  construction  of  new  and  original  combinations. 

Recognition  of  Individual  Differences. — In  view  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  great  individual  differences  in  the  power  of 
imagery,  the  question  arises  whether  we  should  attempt  to 
develop  the  special  talents  or  supply  deficiencies  and  try  to 
secure  equal  powers  in  all  directions.  Three  of  the  types  un- 
doubtedly have  become  of  greatest  importance  in  our  lives. 
These  are  the  visual,  the  auditory,  and  the  muscular,  and  an 
attempt  should  be  made  to  secure  at  least  a  medium  degree  of 
proficiency  in  reproducing  each  of  these  classes  of  images. 
The  senses  of  taste  and  smell  are  not  so  absolutely  essential, 
but,  however,  unless  the  sense-organs  are  defective  they  should 
receive  training,  as  the  pleasures  of  life  may  be  much  enhanced 
by  being  able  to  recall  images  in  terms  of  these  senses.  Greater 
enjoyment  may  be  derived  through  the  normal  development 
of  all  the  kinds  of  imagination,  and  the  general  mental  effi- 
ciency may  be  increased. 

These  individual  differences  in  imagination  should  be  recog- 
nized in  education.  The  kind  of  imagination  one  possesses 
often  determines  his  success  in  a  given  subject  of  study  or  in 
a  given  occupation  in  life.  The  type  of  imagination  possessed 
by  a  pupil  may  also  determine  his  method  of  studying  particu- 
lar subjects.  One  child  learns  spelling  best  by  visualizing, 
another  by  auditizing,  another  by  reproducing  the  ideas  in 
motor  terms.  One  learns  best  what  he  reads  by  reproducing 
it  visually,  another  by  reviving  the  sound,  another  by  feeling 
the  action  of  the  vocal  cords  or  the  muscles  involved.  I 
know  of  two  children  who  took  piano  lessons.  One  of  them 
can  play  from  memory  without  the  notes  anything  once  mas- 
tered; the  other  must  always  have  the  written  music,  or  she 
cannot  reproduce  any  of  the  lessons.  The  first  has  good  audi- 
tory imagery,  the  other  is  very  lacking  in  this  type,  but  de- 
pends upon  visual  and  motor  imagery. 

Imagination  in  Geography  Study. — No  subject  should  be 
studied  merely  to  give  exercise  in  imagery.     The  images  ac- 


254    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

quired  should  be  worth  while  and  imagination  should  be  a 
means  of  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  subject.  Geography 
is  one  of  the  subjects  which  can  only  be  acquired  accurately 
through  the  use  of  imagination.  It  is  not  by  taking  wild 
flights  of  fancy  in  geography  that  the  imagination  is  used, 
but  in  the  definite  and  accurate  revival  of  experiences  gained 
through  sense-perception. 

Let  us  take  a  specific  example  for  illustration.  Suppose  the 
pupils  were  studying  the  port  of  Seattle.  The  first  step  would 
be  to  have  the  pupils  visit  the  municipal  docks,  terminals,  and 
warehouses.  They  should  see,  hear,  touch,  measure  (through 
walking  and  climbing)  the  many  things  and  relations  there. 
They  will  see  immense  docks  and  warehouses  with  mammoth 
steamships  loading  and  unloading;  a  harbor  with  liners  fly- 
ing flags  of  every  great  nation  of  the  globe.  They  can  see  the 
trucks,  giant  cranes,  hear  the  ceaseless  clanking  of  chains, 
smell  the  fishy  smell.  They  may  see  the  cargoes  of  wheat, 
cotton,  and  peanuts,  tons  of  iron,  rolls  of  paper,  giant  tim- 
bers, tropical  fruits,  arctic  furs,  stacks  of  shingles,  and,  in 
fact,  commodities  from  every  corner  of  the  globe.  They 
should  observe  how  these  products  are  stored  in  the  steamers 
and  warehouses,  how  they  are  loaded  and  unloaded,  how  they 
are  transshipped,  etc.  All  this  is  in  the  realm  of  sense-percep- 
tion and  not  imagination.     They  thus  get  sense-perceptions. 

On  returning  to  school  they  should  revive  all  these  percepts, 
giving  as  exact  descriptions  as  possible.  They  should  see 
again,  hear  ag^in,  and  revive  all  the  manifold  experiences  just 
as  exactly  as  possible.  This  is  reproductive  imagination.  To 
stimulate  these  revivals  encourage  oral  discussions  and  written 
lessons,  have  them  draw  and  remake  in  miniature  some  of  the 
things  they  have  observed.  An  abundance  of  time  should  be 
taken  for  it.  Too  often  pupils  observe  much  and  never  revive 
any  of  the  experiences.  In  that  way  the  benefits  are  largely 
lost,  for  without  revival  the  idea  soon  becomes  vague  and 
hazy. 

The  third  stage,  that  of  constructive  or  productive  imagina- 
tion, should  not  be  omitted.     They  may  be  asked  to  revise 


IMAGINATION   IN  LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION     255 

and  rearrange  some  of  the  things  they  observed.  For  exam- 
ple, ask  if  they  could  rearrange  the  docks  and  terminals  so  as 
to  make  loading  and  unloading  handier.  Could  they  suggest 
new  appliances  for  handling  the  various  commodities?  Are 
the  terminals  large  enough  ?  Are  they  of  the  right  construc- 
tion? Should  they  be  in  another  part  of  the  city?  Where 
should  the  railway  terminals  be  ?  etc.  Keep  in  mind  continu- 
ally that  the  constructive  imagination  as  well  as  the  reproduc- 
tive is  absolutely  dependent  upon  previous  sensory  experi- 
ences. The  essence  of  imagination  does  not  consist  in  the 
rearrangement  of  materials,  but  in  their  revival  in  the  form 
of  images. 

Another  good  problem  for  constructive  imagination  would 
be  to  ask  the  pupils  to  suggest  ways  for  handling  more  advan- 
tageously the  congested  traffic  on  ''Second  Avenue."  Ask 
them  to  landscape  more  artistically  their  school  grounds,  some 
particular  city  park,  etc. 

Everything  possible  should  be  done  to  secure  objective  illus- 
tration of  as  large  a  fund  of  facts  as  possible.  Wherever  prac- 
ticable, things  should  be  seen  in  their  natural  habitat,  plants 
in  the  fields,  rocks  in  the  ledges,  etc.  Excursions  should  be  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  all  public  schools.  The  fresh  air  and 
exercise  are  themselves  conducive  to  clear  brains  and  vivid 
imaginations.  Many  city  children  have  never  seen  common 
domestic  farm  animals  such  as  the  cow,  pig,  hen,  and  sheep. 
Their  only  ideas  have  been  built  up  from  pictures.  Their 
ideas  through  this  source  are  so  erroneous  that  many  children 
have  thought  the  cow  no  larger  than  a  mouse.  The  pictures 
were  of  the  same  size,  why  should  they  not  so  think  ?  Excur- 
sions should  include  factories,  foundries,  flouring-mills,  paper- 
mills,  tanneries,  printing-offices,  brick-yards,  stone-quarries, 
water-works,  gas-works,  electric-lighting  plants,  railroad  de- 
pots, commission  houses,  museums,  art-galleries,  law-courts, 
legislative  halls,  caucuses,  etc.,  the  particular  ones  visited  de- 
pending upon  the  locality.  Not  infrequently  are  classes  taught 
about  plants,  soils,  and  minerals  without  a  single  objective 
illustration,  not  seldom  do  pupils  "pass"  in  the  subject  of  civil 


256    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

government  without  ever  having  witnessed  a  single  feature 
discussed.     It  is  still  words,  words,  words ! 

The  school  museum  should  also  be  a  prominent  feature  of 
every  school;  in  it  should  be  found  specimens  of  forest,  field, 
factory,  and  trade  from  home  surroundings,  and  as  much  as 
means  will  allow  illustrating  the  life  of  other  countries.  Ex- 
tended zoological,  botanical,  and  mineralogical  cabinets  are 
not  usually  so  educative  for  children  as  collections  typifying 
the  industrial  and  social  life  of  people — remember  that  the 
people  are  to  be  the  centre  of  interest.  Children  should  be 
encouraged  in  their  natural  instincts  for  making  collections. 
More  geography  has  frequently  been  learned  by  a  boy  through 
his  stamp  collection — which  his  teachers  and  parents  may 
have  ridiculed  and  tried  to  destroy — than  in  all  of  his  hours 
of  formal  toil  at  the  subject.  Of  229  boys.  Doctor  G.  Stanley 
Hall  found  that  only  19  had  no  collections.  Thirty- two  per 
cent  of  these  had  made  collections  from  nature,  and  34  per 
cent  had  made  postage-stamp  collections.  The  age  at  which 
the  postage-stamp  interest  is  at  its  height  seems  to  be  from 
9  to  II  years  of  age — just  the  age  when  geography  is  one  of 
the  dominant  school  subjects. 

In  studying  the  geography  of  foreign  countries  we  must 
make  it  concrete,  even  where  not  feasible  to  make  it  objec- 
tive. The  child  should  get  many  details,  so  that  the  con- 
cepts may  be  full  of  meaning.  In  order  to  secure  fulness  and 
concreteness,  the  text-book  will  have  to  be  abandoned,  or,  at 
any  rate,  considered  as  a  text,  with  the  context  to  be  supplied. 
Most  books  are  altogether  too  condensed.  Here  is  a  sample 
description  of  the  people  of  Holland  as  given  in  a  recent  geog- 
raphy: ''The  Dutch  are  an  exceedingly  thrifty,  hard-working 
people.  They  succeed  in  raising  good  crops  of  rye,  wheat, 
oats,  and  other  farm  produce,  and  they  export  cattle,  sheep, 
butter,  and  cheese."  The  whole  consideration  of  Holland  oc- 
cupies less  than  a  page,  one-fourth  of  that  space  being  given 
to  two  pictures — the  best  part  of  the  whole  description  for 
children.  But  with  the  necessary  generality  of  the  statement, 
what  could  remain  in  the  child's  mind  except  words? 


IMAGINATION   IN   LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION     257 

In  order  to  get  a  picture  of  Holland  the  pupils  should  see  as 
many  objects  from  there  as  are  obtainable,  and  at  least  see 
pictures  of  many  other  things  illustrative  of  Holland  life.  In 
this  picture  there  must  be  definite  imagery  of  the  historic 
windmills,  its  ''misty-moisty"  climate,  the  sluggish  rivers, 
flat  land — so  flat  that  from  a  certain  tower  in  Utrecht  almost 
the  entire  country  can  be  seen;  we  must  image  the  three  great 
enemies  of  Holland,  the  lakes  which  they  drain,  the  rivers 
which  they  imprison,  and  the  great  arch-enemy,  the  sea,  which 
they  combat,  sometimes  successfully,  sometimes  themselves 
overwhelmed;  we  must  image  the  reclaimed  acres  and  the 
dikes,  which  nobody  has  ever  described  perfectly  in  words; 
the  alarm-bells;  the  stage-boats  on  the  canals  in  summer,  and 
the  whole  families,  from  grandsire  to  grandchildren,  on  skates 
in  winter;  the  storks  on  the  roofs,  with  the  traditions  which 
each  little  Hollander  is  told  concerning  these  sacred  birds;  the 
Dutch  fishing-boats,  the  awkward  carts,  the  housewives  scrub- 
bing the  floors;  the  wooden  shoes  with  silver  buckles,  the  short 
petticoats  and  gorgeous  head-dresses;  the  delftware  and  the 
naturalistic  paintings  of  Rembrandt,  Van  de  Velde,  and  Ruys- 
dael.  These  and  scores  of  other  objects  and  events  must  be 
brought  before  the  pupil  so  vividly  that  he  projects  himself 
into  the  scene  as  an  actual  witness.  This  can  be  accomplished 
only  by  presenting  many  details  and  in  a  concrete  way.  It  is 
only  by  this  means  that  a  proper  conceptual  idea  can  arise. 
To  leave  out  of  Dutch  life  the  windmills,  the  dikes,  the  storks, 
and  the  habits  of  the  people  would  be  like  teaching  "  Hamlet" 
with  Hamlet  left  out.  It  is  not  impossible  to  teach  all  the 
above  concretely,  either  by  objects,  pictures,  or  through  verbal 
description  which  portrays  the  new  scenes  in  terms  of  known 
experiences. 

"Recently  I  went  into  a  practice  school  connected  with  the 
University  of  Chicago,"  wrote  President  Faunce,  ''where  I 
saw  the  children  gathered  round  a  teacher  who  was  reading 
to  them  the  poem  of  'Hiawatha,'  and  their  eyes  were  wide 
with  wonder.  Then  they  went  over  into  the  Field  Columbian 
Museum  and  saw  the  materials  of  Indian  life,  the  tents  and 


258         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

the  wampum,  the  feathers  and  the  moccasins,  and  all  the 
utensils  of  the  Indian  household.  Then  they  returned  and 
modelled  in  clay  an  Indian  village,  with  Hiawatha  at  one  end 
of  it,  and  all  over  it  the  marks  of  the  creative  imagination." 
In  contrast  President  Faunce  said:  "I,  too,  learned  'Hia- 
watha,' side  by  side  with  Mr.  Colburn's  ingenuities.  I  could 
spell  the  name  of  every  tree  in  Hiawatha's  forest,  but  would 
not  have  known  one  of  them  if  I  had  seen  it.  I  could  pro- 
nounce the  name  of  every  beast  on  the  American  continent 
or  in  Noah's  ark,  but  knew  nothing  about  any  one  of  them." 

Collections  of  pictures  should  form  a  part  of  the  equipment 
of  every  geographical  classroom.  Such  collections  as  are 
found  in  many  magazines  and  accompanied  by  verbal  descrip- 
tion can  be  easily  obtained,  and  they  serve  to  awaken  great 
interest  and  to  make  things  real.  Photographs  can  frequently 
be  secured.  The  stereopticon  views  are  still  better.  One 
only  needs  to  watch  the  crowds  going  to  the  "magic-lantern" 
shows  and  the  moving-picture  shows  to  know  the  interest  that 
is  aroused  by  views  projected  upon  the  screen.  Things  ap- 
pear to  stand  out  in  three-dimensional  space,  and  perfect  illu- 
sions might  almost  cause  one  to  mistake  the  representations 
for  the  realities.  No  one  ever  obtained  much  of  an  idea  of  a 
glacier  from  an  ordinary  picture  and  verbal  description.  But 
I  have  seen  stereopticon  views  that  almost  made  one  hear  the 
detonation  as  immense  blocks  of  ice  fell  into  the  sea.  What 
complex  scenes  are  we  not  able  to  portray  vividly  to  the 
eye.  One  only  lacks  real  auditory  impressions,  and  they  will 
be  awakened  through  imaginative  representations.  Every 
schoolroom  should  at  least  be  supplied  with  a  good  lantern, 
and  it  should  be  a  part  of  every  teacher's  equipment  to  know 
how  to  operate  it.  The  moving-picture  machine  is  now  so 
perfect  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  day  is  not  distant  when  every 
school  shall  possess  one. 

These  perceptual  notions  should  more  and  more  be  enriched 
through  the  images  reproduced  from  former  perceptions.  The 
words  of  the  teacher  and  descriptive  books  should  also  bring 
often  into  requisition  as  large  a  stock  of  images  as  possible. 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION     259 

Finally,  when  a  vast  array  of  fundamental  notions  has  been 
derived  through  the  medium  of  sense  experience,  the  represen- 
tations may  be  stimulated  entirely  through  verbal  description. 
Thus,  by  the  time  a  pupil  is  able  to  read  standard  literature, 
it  ought  to  be  no  longer  necessary  to  resort  to  objective  or  pic- 
torial illustration  to  convey  the  pictures  delineated  by  the 
writer.  They  ought  to  be  called  into  being  by  their  verbal 
symbols.  But  until  the  word  has  received  a  content  based 
upon  experience  the  word  can  call  up  no  image.  In  this  higher 
stage,  which  is  of  equal  importance  with  the  lower,  new  pic- 
tures are  created  through  combination  of  the  pictures  sug- 
gested by  the  words. 

If  geography  is  taught  according  to  the  method  suggested, 
it  may  become  one  of  the  richest  subjects  in  the  whole  curricu- 
lum. It  need  no  longer  remain  "the  poor  man's  study,"  but 
one  which  is  rich  in  basal  concepts  for  almost  every  other  sub- 
ject. It  furnishes  most  of  the  fundamental  apperceptive  con- 
tent for  the  material  sciences,  and  dealing  as  it  does  with 
life  in  all  its  relations,  it  furnishes  the  indispensable  prelimi- 
nary to  the  understanding  of  literature,  history,  commerce, 
economics,  politics,  and  even  education  and  religion. 

All  this,  however,  deals  with  sense-perceptions  and  only  be- 
comes imagination  when  revived.  Definite  opportunities  for 
accurate  recall  should  be  provided.  This  will  first  use  repro- 
ductive imagination.  Then  recombinations,  modifications, 
and  elaborations  should  be  made  through  productive  or  con- 
structive imagination.  After  the  pupils  have  made  observa- 
tions, gaining  definite  and  accurate  sense-perceptions,  they 
should  be  given  an  opportunity  to  revive  those  experiences  as 
accurately  as  possible.  They  should  give  descriptions,  being 
held  to  accurate  statements  of  fact.  At  first  they  will  tend 
to  omit  important  data  or  to  arrange  them  in  unorganized 
fashion.  Few  persons  without  training  observe  accurately 
and  report  faithfully.  Practice  under  sympathetic,  critical 
guidance  will  accomplish  wonders.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  be 
uncritical  that  the  average  mind  is  exceedingly  slovenly  in 
reviewing  former  perceptions. 


26o        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR   TEACHERS 

Imagination  in  Scientific  Study. — "Physical  investigation, 
more  than  anything  else  besides,  helps  to  teach  us  the  actual 
value  and  right  use  of  the  imagination,"  said  Sir  Benjamin 
Brodie  in  an  address  to  the  Royal  Society.  (Quoted  by  Tyn- 
dall,  Fragments  of  Science,  p.  417.)  It  is  not  only  important 
as  a  means  of  training,  but  the  sciences  themselves  could  never 
be  profitably  pursued  without  a  judicious  use  of  the  imagina- 
tion. The  same  noted  authority  says  that  this  power,  when 
"properly  controlled  by  experience  and  reflection,  becomes  the 
noblest  attribute  of  man;  the  source  of  poetic  genius,  the  in- 
strument of  discovery  in  science,  without  the  aid  of  which 
Newton  would  never  have  invented  fluxions,  nor  Davy  have 
decomposed  the  earths  and  alkalies,  nor  would  Columbus  have 
found  another  continent." 

It  needs  to  be  clearly  understood  that  the  repicturing  of 
things  exactly  as  they  are  is  the  essence  of  imagination.  To 
look  upon  a  plant  and  then  when  it  is  no  longer  present  to 
recall  its  details  of  root,  stem,  branches,  leaves,  color,  or  shape, 
is  to  imagine.  To  observe  a  hydrostatic  press  and  later  recall 
the  relations  of  the  lever,  piston,  valves,  bolts,  and  standards, 
is  to  exercise  imagination.  The  student  who  looks  through 
the  microscope  and  sees  unicellular  beings,  then  turns  away 
and  draws  them  exactly  is  exercising  imagination  of  the  most 
accurate  kind.  To  view  the  proper  geometric  figure  in  con- 
nection with  the  Pythagorean  theorem,  and  then  without  hav- 
ing the  book  or  paper  present  to  see  the  figure  and  all  its  rela- 
tions with^the  mind's  eye,  is  to  exercise  imaginative  processes 
no  less  than  to  write  a  book  of  fiction.  In  fact,  the  former  is 
the  more  fundamental  and  the  latter  is  apt  to  be  incoherent, 
hazy,  and  inexact,  unless  a  foundation  has  been  laid  through 
imagination  of  the  former,  exact  reproductive  type.  Imagina- 
tion is  employed  in  acquiring  and  recalling  the  concrete  de- 
tails of  science  no  less  than  in  building  up  notions  of  relations 
and  theories  which  have  not  been  tested  by  observation  of 
material  things.  Reproductive  imagination  is  employed  in 
the  former  case,  productive  or  constructive  in  the  latter.  The 
former  is  prerequisite  to  the  latter,  a  fact  which  is  so  often 
overlooked.     If  this  exact  reproduction  of  definite  notions  of 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION     261 

material  things,  gained  through  the  senses  of  sight,  sound, 
touch,  taste,  smell,  and  weight  is  insisted  upon,  the  combina- 
tive imagination  will  almost  take  care  of  itself.  At  any  rate, 
there  is  no  place  for  the  latter  without  definite  images  to  com- 
bine. Thus  the  scientist  with  his  exact  consideration  of  ma- 
terial things  has  as  much — I  am  inclined  to  think  much  more 
— to  do  with  the  development  of  powerful  creative  imagina- 
tions as  the  poet,  the  painter,  or  the  sculptor. 

For  one  with  some  genius  in  painting  no  better  foundation  for 
science  could  be  had  than  an  exact  and  exacting  course  in  de- 
scriptive geometry  as  given  in  an  engineering  school.  Doubt- 
less all  our  great  painters  and  sculptors  owe  much  of  their  suc- 
cess in  producing  ideal  creations  to  their  exact  knowledge  of 
anatomy  and  architecture.  These  subjects  are  always  pre- 
scribed in  schools  of  art.  A  great  architect  must  see  every 
minutest  detail,  even  in  his  most  unique  creations.  It  is  said 
that  Michaelangelo,  before  beginning  to  decorate  a  room  in 
fresco,  spent  days  and  days  studying  intently  the  bare  walls 
and  picturing  exactly  what  was  to  appear.  Some  one  remon- 
strated with  him  for  such  a  waste  of  time,  but  he  said:  "I 
have  to  see  my  picture  before  I  can  paint  it."  "With  accu- 
rate experiment  and  observation  to  work  upon,  imagination 
becomes  the  architect  of  physical  theory.  Newton's  passage 
from  a  falling  apple  to  a  falling  moon  was  an  act  of  the  pre- 
pared imagination,  without  which  the  'laws  of  Kepler'  could 
never  have  been  traced  to  their  foundations.  Out  of  the  facts 
of  chemistry  the  constructive  imagination  of  Dalton  formed 
the  atomic  theory."  (Tyndall,  Fragments  of  Science,  p.  419.) 
In  the  study  of  sound  the  imagination  must  be  called  upon  to 
transcend  actual  experience.  "The  bodily  eye,  for  example, 
cannot  see  the  condensations  and  rarefactions  of  the  waves  of 
sound.  We  construct  them  in  thought,  and  we  believe  as 
firmly  in  their  existence  as  in  that  of  the  air  itself."  (Tyndall, 
op.  cit.j  p.  421.)  Then  carry  it  over  into  the  realm  of  light. 
In  microscopic  work  only  flat  surfaces  are  seen — the  imagina- 
tion must  build  up  the  third  dimension  and  the  relations  be- 
tween the  parts. 

Just  because  natural  science  deals  with  objects  perceived 


262         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR   TEACHERS 

by  the  senses  it  affords  unsurpassed  opportunities  for  imagina- 
tion. As  indicated,  it  need  not  be  confined  to  exact  copies  of 
things  perceived.  It  may  be  used  to  recombine  in  the  most 
unheard-of  ways.  It  may  picture  the  most  fantastic  com- 
binations and  conceive  of  those  elements  as  working  accord- 
ing to  laws  before  undreamed  of.  In  fact,  this  is  the  course  of 
science.  It  is  not  unscientific  to  do  this  provided  we  further 
do  what  the  true  scientist  does,  viz.,  test  the  conclusions. 
Barring  the  small  part  played  by  accident  in  discovery,  this 
has  been  the  course  followed  in  the  development  of  science. 
"First  comes  the  conjecture  pictured  by  the  imagination,  then 
logic  and  reasoning,  then  the  test  by  observation  and  experi- 
ment. This  is  the  necessary  order  of  discovery,  and  it  is  the 
best  order  for  the  student  who  will  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  discoverer.  It  is,  and  must  be,  the  path  of  the  discoverer. 
His  mind  must  work  pictorially."  (Tyler,  School  Review, 
6:  721-722.) 

Imagination  and  Invention. — In  every  invention  a  result  to 
be  attained  has  to  be  pictured  and  then  known  appliances 
tested  to  see  how  far  they  will  meet  the  requirements.  If  they 
fall  short  they  must  be  varied  and  combined  and  recombined 
in  such  a  way  as  to  reach  a  result.  The  man  who  invented 
copper  toes  for  shoes  asked  himself:  "What  will  make  that 
part  of  the  shoe  wear  as  long  as  the  rest?"  He  set  about 
imagining  various  things  that  would  produce  the  result.  Cop- 
per caps  were  finally  hit  upon  and  the  inventor  was  made 
rich.  The  invention  of  the  steam-engine  was  a  similar  proc- 
ess. What  new  motive  can  be  used  in  exerting  great  force? 
was  the  question  set.  Steam  had  lifted  the  lid  of  the  tea- 
kettle, and  the  imagination  confined  great  amounts  of  steam 
in  a  cylinder,  and  then  conceived  a  piston  to  compress  the  air, 
and  the  problem  was  solved.  The  imagination  has  discovered 
atoms  and  worlds;  it  has  penetrated  the  interstices  of  all 
matter;  it  has  encompassed  in  its  glance  the  limits  of  the  uni- 
verse; it  has  espied  the  invisible  force  which  unites  all  things 
terrestrial  and  celestial ;  it  has  stolen  the  secret  laws  of  all  the 
varying  changes  in  the  universe;  it  has  enslaved  these  laws 


IMAGINATION   IN  LEARNING   AND    EXPRESSION     263 

and  forces;  it  has  joined  them  in  infinitesimal  permutations;  it 
has  harnessed  the  cosmic  forces  singly  and  tandem  in  n-fold 
forms  and  caused  them  to  do  service  from  the  most  menial  to 
the  most  exalted;  it  has  ploughed  our  fields  and  garnered  the 
bounteous  harvests;  it  has  lighted  our  homes;  it  has  clad  us 
warmly  and  fed  us  bountifully;  it  has  provided  us  aesthetic 
enjoyment,  as  in  music,  art,  and  poetry;  it  has  girt  the  globe 
with  means  of  transit;  by  its  achievements  knowledge  of  the 
thoughts  and  actions  of  all  mankind  is  borne  on  lightning  pul- 
sations to  every  corner  of  the  globe. 

Imagination  in  the  Study  of  Literature. — In  training  the 
imagination  in  literary  study  first  see  that  the  literature  stud- 
ied is  imaginative,  and  then  let  it  appeal  to  all  the  senses,  so 
that  literature  may  quicken  the  boy  to  say  like  Christopher 
Sly: 

"I  see,  I  hear,  I  speak; 
I  smell  sweet  savors,  and  I  feel  soft  things." 

Further,  the  laws  of  apperception  must  be  heeded.  It  is 
absurd  to  expect  the  child  to  imagine  when  no  elements  are 
already  in  his  possession.  Parts  of  "Childe  Harold,"  though 
beautiful  verse,  would  awaken  no  representations  in  the  mind 
of  a  reader  unacquainted  with  Itahan  skies.  Similarly  "The 
Lady  of  the  Lake"  would  call  up  very  little  visual  imagery  to 
a  child  not  made  acquainted,  through  personal  observation  or 
pictorial  representation,  with  the  Scottish  mountains,  lakes, 
and  Highland  costumes.  What  vague,  distorted  pictures 
must  be  evolved  by  children,  lifelong  residents  in  the  slum 
districts  of  a  metropolitan  city  like  London  or  New  York,  and 
who  have  never  made  an  excursion  beyond  their  own  ward, 
when  they  read  the  opening  stanza  of  Gray's  "Elegy": 

*'The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day, 
The  lowing  herd  winds  slowly  o'er  the  lea, 
The  ploughman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way, 
And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me." 

They  have  never  beheld  a  herd,  perhaps  not  even  a  cow; 
their  only  estimate  is  one  gained  from  pictures,  and  undoubt- 


264         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

edly  many  a  boy  has  thus  gained  the  idea  that  a  cow  and  a 
mouse  are  of  the  same  size.  They  have  never  seen  a  lea; 
perhaps  have  never  set  foot  on  earth — only  on  pavements. 
The  picture  of  a  fading,  glimmering  landscape  is  undreamed. 
Most  of  the  imagery  suggested  in  the  first  seven  stanzas 
would  be  impossible  to  such  children  until  they  were  provided 
with  the  necessary  background  of  sensory  experience.  This 
leads  us  to  the  very  practical  question  as  to  how  the  sense- 
perceptions  may  be  suppHed.  It  must  be  granted  that  it  is 
not  so  easy  to  secure  as  to  prescribe,  but  that  in  no  wise  viti- 
ates the  theory  nor  does  it  lessen  the  desirability  nor  the  im- 
perativeness of  providing  in  every  manner  possible  for  a  rich 
perceptual  life.  And  whenever  we  cannot  resort  to  nature 
we  must  resort  to  art  to  assist  us.  In  many  cases  where  words 
are  entirely  inadequate,  and  objective  illustration  impossible, 
pictures,  diagrams,  and  charts  can  come  to  the  rescue.  Pic- 
torial illustration,  as  an  aid  in  teaching,  was  initiated  by  that 
noble  and  prophetic  old  Moravian  John  Ames  Comenius 
nearly  300  years  ago,  but  the  manifold  use  of  visual  represen- 
tation is  only  yet  in  its  infancy.  The  stereopticon  can  be 
used  as  well  in  literature  as  in  geography  and  physics.  A 
good  stereopticon  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the  equipment  of 
every  schoolroom,  not  one  for  every  building,  but  one  for 
every  room,  for  every  grade,  and  every  teacher  ought  to  be 
instructed  in  the  technic  of  its  manipulation.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, Irving's ''Westminster  Abbey,"  and  combine  the  effect 
of  lantern  views  with  the  verbal  description  given  by  Irving, 
and  how  much  greater  would  be  the  effect  than  by  the  verbal 
description  alone.  In  my  own  case  the  careful  study  of  the 
verbal  description  failed  to  give  me  a  picture  at  all  correspond- 
ing to  reaUty.  Upon  visiting  the  abbey  I  was  not  a  little 
surprised  to  find  how  erroneous  my  notions  were  concerning 
it.  A  few  lantern-slides  would  have  changed  my  ideal  en- 
tirely. It  has  been  well  said  that  the  foreign  traveller  gets 
only  as  much  history  or  geography  through  his  travels  as  he 
takes  with  him.  In  attempting  to  train  the  imagination 
through  literature  we  may  learn  a  valuable  lesson  from  a  psy- 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING   AND   EXPRESSION     265 

chological  analysis  of  some  of  the  best  imaginative  literature. 
We  need  to  bear  In  mind  that  those  Images  which  are  clearest 
and  most  vivid  are  the  ones  that  are  most  easily  described. 
Hence  we  know  that  those  descriptions  which  are  most  accu- 
rate and  convey  the  clearest  pictures  to  the  reader  are  descrip- 
tions of  things  which  have  come  within  the  writer's  actual  ex- 
perience. Scott,  bred  elsewhere,  could  never  have  delineated 
such  masterpieces  as  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  Ivanhoe,  and 
"Marmion."  Byron,  without  actual  knowledge  of  Lake 
Geneva,  Swiss  mountains  and  castles,  and  the  political  vicis- 
situdes of  that  country  could  never  have  penned  the  "  Prisoner 
of  Chlllon."  No  other  environment  could  have  furnished  the 
same  images  and  stimulated  him  to  describe  them  with  the 
same  realistic  touches.  "The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night "  could 
not  have  been  written  by  one  unpossessed  of  a  lifelong  famil- 
iarity with  Scottish  life.  Irving,  living  in  the  Carolinas  or 
California,  could  never  have  depicted  the  ideal  Dutch  life  in 
old  New  York  nor  the  "Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow."  Though 
ideal  and  fictitious,  they  are  true  representations  of  what  has 
been  lived.  No  one  but  a  Yankee  bred  could  have  written 
"When  the  frost  is  on  the  punkin,"  and  only  a  child-lover  and 
observer  could  have  produced  those  sweet,  inimitable  poems 
given  to  us  by  Eugene  Field.  Halleck  has  studied  the  great- 
est bard  of  all  the  ages,  Shakespeare,  to  determine  the  secret 
of  his  great  imaginative  resources.  He  has  shown  that  Shake- 
speare's works  are  replete  with  allusions  to  nature.  The 
images  described  are  not  confined  to  sight  alone,  but  all  the 
senses  are  appealed  to — sight,  hearing,  touch,  taste,  and  smell. 
Those  scenes  Shakespeare  would  never  have  been  able  to  rep- 
resent without  first-hand  knowledge  of  all  the  things  he  has 
depicted.  The  poet's  early  life  was  spent  out  of  doors,  in 
contact  with  the  fields,  the  woods,  the  birds,  and  the  animals. 
Though  his  parents  could  probably  neither  read  nor  write, 
the  young  Shakespeare  received  a  splendid  education;  that 
is,  through  sensory  training  he  obtained  a  vast  store  of 
images  which  were  later  woven  into  such  marvellous  combi- 
nations. 


266    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Imagination  in  Everyday  Life. — While  stress  has  been  laid 
on  the  education  of  the  imagination  in  connection  with  school 
subjects,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  imagination  is  of  value 
in  scholastic  life  only.  No  power  of  the  mind  should  be  more 
active  in  performing  the  duties  outside  of  school,  and  the  pur- 
pose of  the  school  training  is  in  part  to  make  the  individual 
more  efficient  and  happier  in  the  extra-school  occupations 
throughout  the  rest  of  his  life.  The  imagination  is  needed  in 
every  art,  trade,  craft,  or  occupation.  For  example,  the  effi- 
cient blacksmith  must  see  exactly,  in  imagination,  the  horse's 
hoof  to  be  shod,  the  wagon  tire  to  be  fitted,  the  function  of 
the  bolt  or  brace;  and  then  he  must  hammer  the  iron  and  steel 
to  fit  the  particular  case.  The  painter,  the  carpenter,  the 
architect,  the  watchmaker,  the  machinist,  the  inventor,  the 
typewriter,  the  printer,  the  landscape-gardener,  the  tailor,  the 
dressmaker,  the  milliner,  the  musician,  the  farmer — all  need 
well-trained  powers  of  imagination  if  they  are  to  succeed  in 
life. 

Wonders  of  the  Imagination. — In  closing  we  may  echo  the 
statement  of  Robert  Witt  that  "  the  possession  of  a  vivid  imag- 
ination, of  the  imaginative  faculty  in  all  its  variety  and  many- 
sidedness,  is  a  gift  of  the  gods  themselves,  and,  as  it  were, 
priceless.  Imagination  has  the  power  to  alter  the  face  of  the 
world,  to  bridge  distance,  to  annihilate  time;  like  an  alche- 
mist, it  can  transmute,  refine,  transform;  like  the  artist,  it  is 
skilful  to  glorify  and  to  enrich.  On  the  moral  side  of  life  it 
knows  how  to  comfort  and  encourage,  to  inspire  and  control, 
to  animate  and  to  rejoice."  {Westminster  Review,  August, 
1900.) 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  After  looking  at  a  drawing,  try  to  reproduce  it  from  memory.  2. 
Look  at  some  simple  object  and  try  to  draw  it  from  memory,  3.  Do  not 
look  at  a  watch-dial,  but  try  to  draw  it.  4.  What  mistakes  did  you  make? 
5.  Can  you  revive  accurately  images  of  members  of  your  family?  6. 
Which  can  you  image  the  more  accurately,  pictures  of  your  friends  or  of 
photographs  of  them?  Why?  7.  Crook  the  finger  as  if  pulling  the  trig- 
ger of  a  pistol;  do  not  move  a  muscle,  but  think  hard  of  the  effort.  Can 
you  "feel"  the  movement  and  the  strain?     8.  Can  you  sometimes  hear 


IMAGINATION  IN  LEARNING  AND   EXPRESSION     267 

things  that  are  purely  imaginary?  9,  Is  it  of  value  to  have  pupils  try  to 
image  things  after  the  stimuli  have  been  removed?  10.  What  are  the 
steps  to  follow  in  causing  pupils  to  use  (a)  reproductive  and  (b)  construc- 
tive imagination  in  learning  music,  penmanship,  drawing,  a  geography 
lesson  on  handling  traffic  in  their  city? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chaps.  XVII,  XVIII,  XIX. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  VI. 

3.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chap.  XV, 

4.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  VII,  VIII. 

5.  Norsworthy  and  Whitley,  Psychology  of  Childhood,  chap.  IX. 

6.  Tanner,  The  Child:  His  Thinking,  Feeling,  and  Doing,  chap.  VII. 

7.  Titchener,  A  Primer  of  Psychology,  chap.  X. 

8.  Woodworth,  Psychology :  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chaps.  XV,  XIX. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THINKING  AND  LEARNING  TO  THINK 

Importance  of  the  Question. — One  question  almost  certain 
to  be  discussed  in  a  teachers'  meeting  is  "How  can  we  get 
pupils  to  think?"  Doctor  Schaeffer  once  said:  "You  can't 
stop  them  from  thinking  !"  If  Schaeffer  was  right,  then  why 
the  necessity  of  teaching  pupils  to  think  ?  The  answer  is  that 
even  though  they  are  bound  to  think,  they  do  not  always 
think  effectively,  nor  do  they  always  think  worth-while 
thoughts.  Doubtless  the  second  is  the  graver  problem.  No 
technical  definition  of  thinking  will  be  given  here.  The  fol- 
lowing simple  definition  will  suffice:  Thinking  is  a  process  of 
comparing,  deliberating,  or  weighing  possibilities  and  coming  to 
a  decision. 

Independence  in  Thinking. — Independence  in  thinking  is  a 
rare  but  thoroughly  economical  mode  of  activity.  Many  peo- 
ple are  so  unused  to  thinking  for  themselves  that  they  would 
be  frightened  at  the  appearance  in  consciousness  of  a  thought 
really  their  own.  It  has  been  said  that  "animals  think  not 
at  all,  and  some  men  a  little."  Most  of  the  effective  thinking 
of  the  world  is  carried  on  by  a  relatively  small  number  of  in- 
dividuals. The  rest  of  the  world  are  mere  echoists.  This  is 
a  terribly  wasteful  process  and  sinful.  There  are  hundreds  of 
everyday  illustrations  which  prove  that  many  people  do  very 
little  independent  thinking.  The  majority  of  voters  cast  their 
ballot  for  the  same  party  as  their  fathers  belonged  to,  or  allow 
themselves  to  be  dictated  to  by  a  few  political  bosses.  Mul- 
titudes of  people  regulate  their  conduct,  their  business,  and 
their  speech  entirely  by  other  people's  thoughts.  Their  con- 
clusions are  all  second-hand  and  give  evidence  of  great  mus- 
tiness.     If  one  doubts  the  force  of  tradition,  just  let  him  try 

268 


THINKING  AND   LEARNING  TO  THINK  269 

to  secure  some  reform  in  any  direction  he  pleases.  A  new- 
measure  is  at  once  regarded  with  suspicion  simply  because  no 
one  ever  knew  of  that  before.  Every  new  idea  proposed  for 
the  schools  is  at  once  branded  by  the  masses  as  a  "fad." 

Millions  of  gallons  of  patent  medicines  containing  alcohol 
and  opiates  as  the  chief  ingredients  are  sold  annually.  Thou- 
sands of  babies  are  stupefied  by  being  dosed  with  "soothing 
syrups"  containing  opiates.  It  is  no  wonder  that  so  many 
children  grow  up  stupid.  The  "quiet"  produced  by  the 
opiates  sometimes  persists  through  life.  Hygienic  rules  which 
common  sense  should  teach  every  one  are  ever  being  ignorantly 
disobeyed.  The  history  of  medicine  is  replete  with  illustra- 
tions of  the  influence  of  charms,  incantations,  and  fetichisms. 
Even  to-day  the  masses  can  be  wheedled  into  absurd  notions 
concerning  medicinal  values.  Let  some  one  announce  a 
"vegetable  remedy,"  or,  still  better,  an  "Indian  vegetable 
remedy,"  or  a  "vegetable  remedy  discovered  by  a  missionary 
or  an  Egyptian,"  and  it  at  once  has  millions  of  throats  open 
to  receive  it. 

When  Columbus  asserted  that  the  earth  was  spherical,  peo- 
ple scouted  the  idea,  and  when  he  passed  through  the  streets 
jeered  at  him  as  being  an  insane  man.  Had  they  not  evi- 
dence through  their  own  senses  that  disproved  such  a  crazy 
theory  as  he  proposed?  A  little  later  Galileo,  Copernicus, 
and  Bruno  shocked  the  world  by  asserting  that  not  the  earth 
but  the  sun  is  the  centre  of  the  universe.  They  were  not  only 
scorned  but  Bruno  was  burned  at  the  stake  because  he  would 
not  retract,  and  Galileo,  after  bitter  persecution,  was  made  to 
swear  that  he  had  never  believed  such  blasphemous  doctrines. 
Could  the  people  not  see  with  their  own  eyes  ?  The  sun  rose 
every  morning  and  set  every  night  after  travelling  round  the 
earth.  Various  conjectures  were  rife  as  to  what  it  did  during 
the  darkened  half  of  the  day,  but  of  course  they  were  positive 
concerning  its  relation  to  the  earth  during  the  other  hours. 
Could  they  not  believe  their  own  senses  ?  And  Aristotle  had 
never  mentioned  such  a  preposterous  proposition.  Monroe 
writes  {The  Educational  Ideal,  p.  9)  that  "during  this  long 


270    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

period  .  .  .  the  dry  formalism  and  dead  conning  of  words 
.  .  .  led,  inevitably,  to  the  dreary  hoo tings  of  scholasticism. 
This  owlish  learning,  growing  more  outrageous  as  its  meta- 
physics became  more  absurdly  deep,  soon  lost  all  point  of  con- 
tact with  humanity.  Its  husks  of  syllogism  drove  all  appe- 
tite for  real  learning  from  the  mind  of  the  student,  and  he 
contented  himself,  ignorant  of  better  intellectual  food,  with  a 
smattering  of  Latin,  a  jargon  of  philosophy." 

Superstitions  and  signs  have  by  no  means  all  belonged  to  a 
bygone  age.  Why  does  the  horseshoe  hang  over  so  many 
doors  ?  Why  do  so  many  people  hesitate  to  begin  a  journey 
or  a  new  piece  of  work  on  Friday  ?  Why  do  fewer  steamships 
start  Friday  than  any  other  day,  if  they  can  get  plenty  of 
passengers  for  Friday  ?  Recently  I  met  a  man  carrying  a  rat- 
tlesnake's tail  in  his  hatband.  On  inquiry  I  found  that  he 
did  this  to  ward  off  rheumatism !  He  firmly  believed  in  the 
efhcacy  of  the  senseless  process.  Why  do  farmers  plant  their 
potatoes  in  the  new  of  the  moon  and  some  other  crops  in  the 
old  of  the  moon  ?  Why  do  they  consult  the  almanac  before 
slaughtering  beef  or  weaning  a  lamb?  This  happens  to  be 
"ground-hog  day,"  and  thousands  of  people  are  pinning  their 
faith  in  the  remaining  winter  weather  upon  the  supposed  ac- 
tion of  the  innocent  little  creature.  I  recently  heard  a  man 
say:  "The  winter  has  been  so  cold,  we  shall  have  an  early 
spring."  A  little  applied  knowledge  of  the  convertibility  of 
heat  into  other  forms  of  energy  would  teach  that  there  is  no 
necessary  truth  in  his  statement. 

The  School  Should  Train  to  Think. — The  school  can  per- 
form no  higher  function  than  to  teach  independence  in  think- 
ing. Unfortunately,  as  many  schools  are  conducted,  every- 
thing tends  to  beget  dependence.  The  child  finds  himself  in 
a  realm  of  mysterious,  meaningless  symbols,  strange  customs, 
arbitrary  rules  and  regulations  for  his  conduct,  and  is  forth- 
with made  to  feel  that  all  must  be  learned  and  accepted  un- 
questioningly.  As  he  progresses  he  finds  words  without  sig- 
nificance which  he  must  pronounce,  read,  and  spell.  Rules  in 
arithmetic  and  grammar  are  forced  upon  him  to  be  mechani- 


THINKING   AND   LEARNING   TO   THINK  271 

cally  memorized  without  illumination;  long  strings  of  dates, 
names  of  kings,  queens,  dynasties,  battles,  and  generals  must 
be  recited  and  called  history;  names  of  capes,  bays,  rivers,  and 
mountains,  which  have  only  location,  must  be  committed. 
Most  of  this  is  without  a  glimmering  of  meaning  or  a  particle 
of  interest  in  the  content  on  the  part  of  the  learner.  The  child 
early  learns  by  imitation  to  accept  the  husks  of  knowledge 
and  to  produce  the  certificates  for  real  knowledge  when  called 
on  to  recite.  Instead  of  continuing  in  a  questioning  attitude 
he  learns  that  the  line  of  least  resistance  is  to  take  everything 
ready-made.  Dewey  remarks  that  "what  is  primarily  re- 
quired is  first-hand  experience.  Until  recently  the  school  has 
literally  been  dressed  out  with  hand-me-down  garments,  with 
intellectual  suits  which  other  people  have  worn." 

The  school  should  train  the  pupil  to  think,  and  to  think 
effectively.  That  is,  it  should  free  the  child  from  superstition, 
it  should  train  him  to  weigh  authorities,  not  to  accept  things 
dogmatically.  It  should  train  him  to  form  conclusions  from 
given  data.  These  conclusions  should  be  just  such,  and  only 
such,  as  are  warranted  by  the  facts  in  hand.  Some  people 
form  no  conclusions  at  all  for  themselves.  They  never  dare 
assert  opinions  unless  others  bear  them  company.  They  are 
largely  echoes  of  other  people.  Still  others  form  opinions,  but 
too  hastily,  the  conclusions  not  being  based  upon  evidence 
and  unwarranted  by  the  facts.  Both  these  tendencies  must 
be  overcome.  There  is  the  child  who  repeats  only  what  the 
book  says,  and  again  the  child  who  is  continually  talking  with- 
out thinking.  Both  of  these  classes  may  be  helped  by  careful 
attention  in  requiring  them  to  be  reflective.  One  needs  to  be 
pushed  into  the  water  to  be  shown  that  he  can  swim,  and  the 
other  needs  to  be  restrained  from  jumping  into  the  whirlpools. 

Although  it  is  the  utmost  pedantry  to  expect  the  child  to 
be  a  discoverer  or  an  inventor  of  knowledge,  new  and  valuable 
to  the  world,  yet  he  should  be  led  through  the  established 
truths  in  the  "course"  in  such  a  way  that  it  shall  possess  in- 
terest, rationality,  and  meaning  for  him.  Many  truths  he 
can  and  should  be  led  purposively  to  discover  by  himself  and 


272         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

for  himself — not  for  the  world — and  what  you  point  out  to 
him  should  be  understood  and  full  of  interest.  Of  course  in 
so  doing  he  will  not  make  independent  discoveries.  But  you 
will  have  supplied  the  conditions  which  it  may  have  taken 
the  world  ages  to  discover,  and  the  child  will  now  perceive 
the  relations  and  the  results.  With  all  the  rule-of-thumb 
exercises,  the  parrot  memorizing,  and  the  dogmatic  state- 
ments which  the  child  finds  at  school,  it  is  little  wonder  that 
he  forgets  that  he  has  ideas  of  his  own  when  school  questions 
are  under  consideration,  even  though  he  is  ultraindependent 
on  the  diamond  or  the  gridiron  and  among  his  fellows.  Cole- 
ridge says:  *'To  educate  is  to  train  to  think,  for  by  active 
thinking  alone  is  knowledge  attained.  Without  active  thought 
we  cannot  get  beyond  mere  belief,  for  to  pass  from  belief  to 
knowledge  means  to  sift  and  weigh  evidence  for  oneself.  .  .  . 
Alas,"  he  exclaims  further,  "how  many  examples  are  now 
present  to  my  memory  of  young  men  the  most  anxiously  and 
expensively  be-school-mastered,  be- tutored,  be-lectured,  any- 
thing but  educated ;  who  have  received  arms  and  ammunition, 
instead  of  skill,  strength,  and  courage;  varnished  rather  than 
polished;  perilously  overcivilized,  and  most  pitiably  unculti- 
vated !  And  all  from  inattention  to  the  method  dictated  by 
nature  herself,  to  the  simple  truth,  that  as  the  forms  in  all 
organized  existence,  so  must  all  true  and  living  knowledge 
proceed  from  within;  that  it  may  be  trained,  supported,  fed, 
excited,  but  can  never  be  infused  or  impressed."  (Quoted  by 
Wei  ton.  The  Logical  Bases  of  Education,  p.  252.) 

Importance  of  the  Concept  or  Universal  Truth. — It  has  been 
well  stated  by  McMurry  that  the  concept  is  the  goal  of  all 
instruction.  This  is  true  if  we  bear  in  mind  as  McMurry  has 
done  that  there  are  moral  truths  as  well  as  intellectual,  and 
that  all  worthy  truths  should  result  in  influencing  action. 
Isolated  percepts  and  detached  facts  are  valuable  only  in  so 
far  as  they  form  a  nucleus  or  matrix  out  of  which  universal 
truths  are  evolved.  Too  much  of  teaching  deals  with  unre- 
lated facts  and  symbols  of  facts  which  do  not  lead  to  the  pro- 
duction of  instruments  (the  concepts)  whereby  new  cases  can 


THINKING  AND   LEARNING  TO  THINK  273 

be  dealt  with.  The  solution  of  a  particular  example  in  arith- 
metic is  of  no  value  unless  it  leads  to  the  formation  of  a  rule 
whereby  others  of  a  similar  nature  may  be  analyzed  and 
solved.  A  particular  experiment  in  physics  or  chemistry  may 
be  interesting,  but  unless  it  illustrates  some  principle  or  law  it 
is  of  no  great  value.  No  great  progress  in  foreign  languages, 
or  in  the  mother  tongue,  for  that  matter,  could  be  made  did 
not  the  learner  arrive  (not  necessarily  consciously)  at  laws  and 
principles  which  are  of  general  application.  Even  the  child 
that  says  * '  I  rimned  down  the  hill ' '  has  arrived  at  several  gen- 
eral principles,  one  of  which  at  least  has  exceptions.  How- 
ever, his  mistake  arises  out  of  his  correct  application  of  a  law 
which  he  has  learned. 

Psychological  Meaning  of  the  Concept. — If  conceptual 
thinking  is  so  important  in  teaching,  then  it  will  be  valuable 
for  teachers  to  study  carefully  the  meaning  of  the  concept  and 
the  modes  of  promoting  its  formation.  The  concept  differs 
from  the  percept  in  many  important  respects.  The  percept  is 
particular,  concrete,  and  in  consciousness  only  when  the  ob- 
ject is  present  to  the  senses.  A  concrete  and  specific  copy  of 
the  percept  is  an  image.  Percepts  and  images  are  ideas  of 
individual  things;  are  specific  and  concrete.  The  concept  is 
an  idea  of  a  class.  It  deals  with  universals.  The  concepts  of 
chair  or  house  do  not  refer  to  particular  chairs  or  houses,  but 
to  the  classes  of  objects.  When  we  think  chair  conceptually 
we  are  not  concerned  with  a  big  chair  or  a  little  one,  a  dining- 
chair  or  a  rocker,  an  oak  chair  or  one  of  mahogany.  When 
we  have  a  concept  of  animal  we  do  not  think  oi  a  cat  or  a  dog, 
a  white  animal  or  a  black  one,  a  ferocious  one  or  a  docile  one. 
In  all  conceptual  thinking  the  characteristics  common  to  the 
class  are  included.  As  soon  as  we  turn  to  some  particular 
individual  of  the  class  we  must  think  in  terms  of  percepts  or 
of  images.     The  concept,  however,  cannot  be  imaged. 

We  must  guard  against  the  idea  that  a  concept  relates  to 
material  objects  only,  or  even  that  it  is  always  represented  by 
a  noun.  There  are  just  as  truly  concepts  of  actions  or  rela- 
tions.    The  predicate,  as  well  as  the  subject,  in  any  sentence 


2  74    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

expresses  a  conceptual  idea.  The  same  is  true  of  every  other 
element  or  part  of  speech.  To  understand  the  expression 
"The  ink  flows  freely  from  my  pen,"  it  is  just  as  necessary  to 
understand  the  denotation  and  the  connotation  of  "flows"  as 
of  ink  or  pen.  Similarly  the  prepositional  phrase  "from  my 
pen"  can  only  be  understood  through  the  universal  idea  com- 
pounded from  many  individual  ideas  that  were  first  known 
through  experience.  Laws  in  physics  and  chemistry,  rules  in 
arithmetic  and  algebra,  definitions  in  grammar,  are  all  ex- 
pressions of  conceptual  ideas.  They  do  not  necessarily  repre- 
sent concepts  in  the  child  mind.  If  he  has  begun  with  the 
definitions,  rules,  and  laws  learned  verbatim,  they  do  not 
stand  for  clear,  definite,  enlarged  relational  ideas.  They  are 
mere  words,  the  counters  of  realities  and  not  the  realities. 
But  if  elements  connoted  in  the  expressions  have  been  experi- 
mentally known,  their  relations  apprehended,  and  the  whole 
knit  together  into  a  product  which  gives  a  new  background 
for  all  subsequent  experiences,  then  we  may  say  that  the  con- 
cept has  been  experienced.  In  natural  science  the  learner 
must  through  classification  of  ideas  be  continually  forming 
new  concepts,  not  only  of  objects  but  of  their  manifold  rela- 
tions. These  concepts  must  be  ever  subject  to  modification 
and  revision  through  new  experiences. 

Genetic  View  of  the  Concept. — It  should  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  a  concept  is  not  a  psychical  product  with  a  fixed 
value  or  content.  When  one  gets  a  concept  of  a  given  object 
he  has  not  exactly  the  same  idea  as  some  one  else  who  has  a 
concept  designated  by  the  same  name.  The  child's  idea  of 
horse  is,  for  example,  very  different  from  the  one  possessed  by 
the  farmer,  the  veterinarian,  the  jockey,  or  the  zoologist.  In 
fact,  each  of  these  will  have  different  ideas  included  in  the 
concept.  The  jockey  has  all  the  fine  racing  points  of  the 
horse  in  his  idea,  while  the  zoologist  thinks  of  the  place  in 
the  animal  scale  to  which  the  horse  belongs.  A  given  con- 
cept also  changes  in  the  mind  of  the  same  individual  accord- 
ing to  his  experiences.  One*s  childhood  concept  of  a  given 
thing  is  very  different  from  his  concept  of  the  same  thing  when 


THINKING   AND   LEARNING   TO   THINK  275 

he  becomes  an  adult.  For  example,  a  child  is  given  a  book 
containing  pictures;  he  thereupon  marks  off  that  object  from 
others  and  isolates  it  as  a  class.  But  as  the  years  go  by,  if 
rightly  schooled,  he  gradually  enlarges  his  idea  of  book. 
He  learns  of  the  different  bindings,  different  sizes,  varying 
print,  and,  more  important  for  the  idea  of  book,  he  learns  of 
the  different  types  of  books,  judged  by  the  contents.  He 
finds  that  there  are  story-books,  reading-books,  arithmetics, 
grammars,  histories,  geographies,  dictionaries,  encyclopaedias; 
books  of  fiction,  travel,  biography,  and  others  in  wonderful 
profusion.  One's  idea  of  book  is  never  complete,  but  with 
the  student  ever  enlarging. 

How  different  the  child's  idea  of  carbon,  when  he  has  seen 
it  exemplified  only  in  a  piece  of  coal,  from  the  concept  of  the 
chemist  who  has  studied  it  in  its  manifold  relations.  Every 
one  thinks  he  has  a  perfect  concept  of  "home."  However,  let 
one  try  to  describe  the  homes  of  the  Cingalese,  the  Kaffirs,  the 
Comanches,  the  Hindoos,  or  a  king,  and  see  whether  he  will 
not  acknowledge  that  there  are  multitudes  of  individual  ideas 
that  could  still  be  incorporated  into  his  concept,  thereby  ex- 
tending it.  Let  the  ordinary  person  try  to  describe  his  con- 
cept of  oxygen  (which  word  he  would  say  he  understood  per- 
fectly) and  see  how  narrow  his  concept,  and  even  how  vague. 
One  who  has  not  studied  chemistry  can  tell  little  about 
oxygen.  One  of  my  adult  students  said  he  understood  the 
word,  knew  that  the  substance  was  a  gas,  that  plants  and 
animals  need  it  to  sustain  life.  There  was  the  expression  of 
a  very  crude  concept;  one  of  very  narrow  content;  but  it  was 
nevertheless  a  concept.  Another  student  who  had  studied 
chemistry  a  little  added  that  it  was  a  constituent  of  water,  of 
nitric  acid,  of  sulphuric  acid,  and  a  few  other  acids;  that  it 
was  a  colorless,  tasteless  gas,  and  a  few  other  facts.  This  stu- 
dent had  a  little  fuller  and  more  exact  notion  or  concept  of 
the  substance.  Suppose  I  had  called  upon  a  professor  of 
chemistry  ?  What  he  could  have  told  me  would  make  a  book. 
His  concept  is  vastly  fuller  and  also  more  exact. 

The  child's  notion  of  plants  is  one  thing,  the  botanist's  an- 


276        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

other;  the  child  knows  only  a  few  facts,  and  those  indefinitely; 
the  botanist  knows  multitudes  of  them,  and  those  with  exact- 
ness. The  child  has  formed  a  few  accidental,  mechanical 
associations;  for  example,  that  all  plants  have  leaves  and  lose 
them  in  the  fall ;  the  botanist  has  formed  myriads  of  thought- 
ful associations  relating  to  structure,  function,  use,  and  habi- 
tat. The  child's  generalizations  concerning  people  are  at 
first  few  and  largely  the  result  of  chance  associations.  As  he 
grows  older  he  extends  his  range  of  acquaintances,  discover- 
ing different  types,  enlarging  his  range  of  observations,  draw- 
ing newer  conclusions,  revising  old  ones,  thus  constantly  mod- 
ifying and  enlarging  his  concept  of  mankind.  Before  he  be- 
comes a  sociologist,  a  statesman,  or  a  leader  of  men  in  any 
capacity,  his  crude  childish  notions  of  society  must  undergo 
such  transformation  that  his  specialized  adult  conceptions  will 
no  longer  be  recognizable  as  related  to  the  primitive  ones. 
However,  this  is  the  only  process  whereby  the  rich,  accurate, 
and  completer  notions  could  have  been  developed.  The  rate 
of  growth  may  be  sometimes  faster,  sometimes  slower,  but 
the  stages  must  be  passed  through.  Finished  concepts  can 
never  be  borrowed  ready-made.  They  must  grow,  and  not 
merely  by  accretion  of  new  material,  but  also  by  apperceptive 
integration. 

Language  and  Thinking  in  Concepts. — There  is  a  very  close 
relation  between  accuracy  of  expression  and  accuracy  of  think- 
ing. Much  of  the  looseness  of  children's  thinking  may  be 
traced  to  slovenliness  of  expression.  The  statement  of  a  rule, 
law,  or  generalization  wrought  out  by  the  student  through  the 
study  of  observed  facts  is  a  very  important  and  clarifying  ex- 
ercise. Too  often  there  is  no  attempt  at  the  formulation  of 
rules  or  principles  by  the  pupils,  but  the  rules  are  either  not 
learned  or  they  are  taken  ready-made  and  merely  committed 
to  memory.  The  old-fashioned  rote-learning  without  compre- 
hension of  rules  and  definitions  was  bad,  but  some  of  the  mod- 
ern superficial  exposure  to  masses  of  facts  without  attempt  at 
analysis,  organization,  classification,  or  definition  of  them  is 
not  much  better.     The  former  closed  the  mind  against  inves- 


THINKING  AND   LEARNING  TO  THINK  277 

tigation  and  produced  the  opinionated  echoist,  the  latter  pro- 
duces the  chaotic-minded,  superficial  factmonger.  The  facts 
are  usually  without  coherence  or  logical  relation.  It  is  only 
when  fundamental  laws  or  principles  are  comprehended  that 
knowledge  becomes  valid  and  serviceable. 

Much  more  time  ought  to  be  spent  in  each  subject  in  help- 
ing pupils  to  formulate  in  good  language  the  generalizations 
worked  out.  Every  teacher  should  be  a  language  teacher, 
not  to  emphasize  the  formal  side  of  language,  but  to  assist 
pupils  in  clear  thinking.  Doubtless,  if  much  less  time  were 
spent  in  isolated  language  study  and  much  more  in  connection 
with  easy  study,  the  result  would  be  much  better.  Geometry 
is  very  largely  an  exercise  in  terse  expression  of  rather  simple 
mathematical  concepts.  Definiteness  of  expression  should  be 
insisted  upon. 

The  Statement  of  Concepts. — Although  the  importance  of 
expression  and  language  training  has  been  emphasized,  a 
caution  needs  to  be  suggested  against  the  forcing  of  over- 
refined  scientific  statements  before  the  concepts  themselves 
have  been  acquired.  It  is  easy  to  require  children  to  mem- 
orize definitions  and  descriptions  of  things  which  they  totally 
fail  to  comprehend.  No  definition  should  be  committed  to 
memory  until  its  meaning  is  understood.  A  definition  is  a 
highly  condensed  statement  of  a  concept.  Since  the  expres- 
sion of  a  concept  is  the  final  step  in  its  acquisition,  if  mem- 
orized before  understood  it  tends  to  close  the  mind  against 
further  analysis  of  the  content.  It  therefore  closes  all  avenues 
of  acquisition  for  that  particular  idea.  What  is  true  of  defi- 
nitions is  also  true  of  rules. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  have  summaries  and  outlines  made — 
by  the  pupils  themselves.  If  stereotyped  summaries  and  out- 
lines are  learned,  they  tend,  like  definitions,  to  close  the  mind 
against  further  search  for  content  and  meaning.  An  outline 
presented  at  the  beginning  of  a  subject  or  topic  should  never 
be  memorized  at  that  stage.  It  may  be  presented  as  a  sort 
of  guide-board  to  indicate  the  direction  to  be  followed,  but  it 
is  detrimental  if  considered  as  the  full  expression  of  the  con- 


278         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

cepts  themselves.  The  most  valuable  outlines  and  summaries 
are  those  made  by  the  learners  themselves.  It  is  especially- 
important  that  advanced  students  be  required  to  organize 
the  materials  which  they  have  acquired.  Unless  required  to 
do  so,  they,  like  children,  tend  to  depend  upon  verbal  mem- 
ory, and  frequently  deceive  themselves  and  their  instructors 
by  the  expression  of  knowledge  which  is  vague  and  meaning- 
less to  them.  Even  though  the  summaries  made  by  the  learner 
himself  may  be  less  finished  than  those  given  by  the  instructor 
and  memorized  in  form  by  the  learner,  they  are  far  more  val- 
uable than  those  borrowed  ready-made.  The  summaries 
made  independently  by  the  learner  indicate  what  he  knows — 
his  concepts — while  those  memorized  from  another  show  what 
the  teacher  knows  and  the  pupil  is  able  to  echo. 

Scientific  Classification  and  Organization  of  Knowledge. — 
Important  as  it  is  to  have  knowledge  classified  in  an  orderly 
and  scientific  manner,  a  caution  should  be  observed  against 
overemphasizing  this  with  beginners.  The  child  mind  is  not 
scientific  in  its  tendencies.  It  is  absorptive,  acquisitive,  but 
not  orderly.  The  interest  and  the  attention  of  the  child  are 
flitting,  and  undoubtedly  this  is  necessary  for  normal  growth. 
Too  long-continued  attention  in  any  direction  causes  over- 
tension  and  one-sidedness  of  growth,  because  of  the  great 
plasticity  at  that  age.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  overemphasize 
system,  classification,  or  refinement  of  expression  in  child- 
hood. It  is  sure  to  kill  interest,  spontaneity,  and  self-activity, 
and  to  produce  arrest  of  development  in  some  direction  or 
other.  We  must  remember  that  one  of  the  very  causes  of 
instability  is  the  struggle  of  instinctive  tendencies  to  assert 
themselves.  While  we  are  causing  the  child  to  fix  absolutely 
certain  forms  and  formulas,  we  are  probably  stifling  the  ex- 
pression of  many  desirable  instincts  and  making  him  lop- 
sided in  other  directions.  Any  teacher  who  has  tried  to  teach 
nature  study  to  children  from  a  book,  logically  and  scientifi- 
cally arranged  from  the  adult  point  of  view,  has  undoubtedly 
made  a  failure  of  it.  Even  in  the  grammar-school  and  the 
high   school   there  is  great  danger  of  overemphasizing  the 


THINKING   AND   LEARNING   TO   THINK  279 

purely  logical  side  of  studies.  There  is  too  much  anxiety  to 
have  everything  systematized  and  ticketed  when  the  pupil 
leaves  a  course  at  any  point.  What  will  be  the  harm  if  pupils 
do  not  "finish"  a  given  "course"  in  history,  geography,  or 
physics?  Who  can  say  w^hat  "the  course"  should  be  in  any 
one  of  them  ?  In  different  countries,  in  different  localities, 
every  one  of  them  may  differ  very  materially  in  content. 
When  a  student  studies  history  in  college  he  certainly  ought 
to  organize  the  subject  thoroughly,  but  before  that  time  it  is 
far  more  important  that  he  gather  facts  and  acquire  a  head- 
way of  interest. 

We  may  go  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  with  beginners  in 
any  grade  of  school,  and  even  in  college,  there  is  great  dan- 
ger of  overemphasizing  classification  and  systematization  of 
knowledge.  To  classify  and  organize  there  must  be  some- 
thing to  classify  and  organize.  The  beginner  in  economics, 
chemistry,  psychology,  or  the  theory  of  education,  for  exam- 
ple, needs  to  go  through  a  gathering  period  before  devoting 
too  much  attention  to  systematization  and  organization,  no 
less  than  does  the  child  in  the  kindergarten.  The  genesis  and 
growth  of  the  concept  demands  it;  and  organization  means 
relatively  finished  expression  of  concepts.  Of  course  the 
teacher  should  proceed  in  an  orderly,  systematic  manner,  but 
it  is  fatal  to  spontaneous  growth  in  the  learner  if  he  becomes 
too  conscious  of  the  method  by  which  he  is  acquiring.  He 
should  be  absorbingly  interested  in  the  ideas  or  activities  ac- 
quired and  relatively  oblivious  of  the  method  of  acquisition. 
Even  the  teacher  must  be  guided  much  more  by  the  psycho- 
logical unfolding  of  his  pupils'  minds  than  by  logical  cate- 
gories. 

Effective  Thinking  through  Habit. — It  is  important  for  the 
student  to  understand  early  the  force  and  value  of  habit. 
Much  time  is  lost  by  every  one  of  us  because  our  early  train- 
ing  did  not  render  automatic  all  those  activities  that  we  have 
to  perform  constantly  and  in  the  same  way.  Purely  mechani- 
cal work  can  be  controlled  more  economically  by  lower  ner- 
vous centres  than  by  higher.     In  childhood  and  youth  the 


28o         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

nervous  system  is  plastic,  a  prime  condition  for  memorizing 
and  fixing  habits.  Among  the  habits  that  should  become  in- 
grained during  this  period  are  those  of  correct  bodily  postures 
and  activities,  correct  speech,  the  multiplication  table,  spell- 
ing, writing,  those  involved  in  learning  to  speak  foreign  lan- 
guages. Most  habits  are  controlled  by  the  spinal  cord,  which 
is  early  developed.  Hence  we  should  form  habits  early,  so 
that  the  brain  may  be  relieved  later  of  mechanical  work  and 
be  concerned  with  higher  operations.  As  Doctor  Balliet  has 
observed : 

At  first  a  child  uses  his  brain  in  walking;  later  he  can  walk  from 
habit,  and  walks,  therefore,  with  his  spinal  cord.  At  first  we  spell 
with  painful  consciousness;  later  we  spell  familiar  words  of  our  vocab- 
ulary with  little  or  no  consciousness.  Children  ought  to  be  trained 
to  write  and  spell  mainly  with  the  spinal  cord,  and  to  use  their  brain 
power  in  thinking  the  thoughts  to  be  expressed.  We  do  many  things 
with  the  spinal  cord  to  relieve  the  brain.  We  walk  with  the  cord,  we 
write  and  spell  with  the  cord;  I  suppose  we  knit  and  gossip  with  the 
spinal  cord;  indeed,  we  may  sing  and  pray,  not  with  our  hearts,  nor 
with  our  brains,  but  with  the  upper  part  of  our  spinal  cord.  We  tip 
our  hats  to  each  other,  not  with  our  brains,  but  mainly  with  our  spinal 
cord;  when  we  meet  people  whom  we  do  not  wish  to  see,  we  often  shake 
hands  mechanically  with  our  spinal  cord — hence  we  speak  of  a  "cor- 
dial welcome." 

Not  only  do  these  elementary  physical  activities  become 
automatic,  but  also  processes  of  judging  and  reasoning  must 
become  largely  mechanical  before  becoming  serviceable. 
One's  thinking  is  largely  specialized,  and  judgment  outside  of 
the  well-beaten  track  of  thinking  is  not  very  valuable.  The 
lawyer's  opinion  concerning  disease  is  slowly  formed  and  un- 
reliable; the  doctor's  judgment  about  legal  matters  likewise  is 
valueless.  The  expert  in  a  given  line  is  one  who  has  studied 
widely  and  who  can  form  instantaneous  judgments  because  of 
the  habitual  consideration  of  the  data.  Difficult  studies  pur- 
sued through  a  long  time  until  mastery  is  complete  become 
simple  as  the  alphabet.  Mathematicians  become  so  familiar 
with  the  calculus  that  they  may  read  it  for  recreation  when 
fatigued  with  other  work.     The  lawyer  can  instantly  cite 


THINKING   AND   LEARNING   TO   THINK  281 

scores  of  cases  and  precedents  for  which  the  tyro  would  have 
required  hours  to  summon  to  the  foreground  of  consciousness. 
Hence,  when  knowledge  is  to  become  usable  it  must  be  pon- 
dered long  and  every  detail  absolutely  appropriated.  To  ar- 
range work  in  such  a  way  as  to  sustain  interest  through  variety 
and  at  the  same  time  dwell  upon  it  until  thoroughly  compre- 
hended and  appropriated  is  high  teaching  art.  The  demands 
for  variety  frequently  allure  to  new  fields  before  assimilation 
has  been  effected. 

I  wonder  if  there  is  not  much  in  modern  student  life  that 
militates  against  the  deepest  thinking.  With  the  multiplica- 
tion of  student  activities,  of  themselves  in  no  way  secondary 
to  any  others  in  importance,  have  not  the  opportunities  for 
sequestered  contemplation  decreased?  With  football,  base- 
ball, basket-ball,  tennis,  rowing,  skating,  the  literary  society, 
the  dramatic  club,  the  freshman  banquet,  the  sophomore  co- 
tillion, the  junior  "prom,"  the  senior  "hop,"  the  numberless 
fraternity,  sorority,  and  various  house-parties,  the  church, 
social,  and  other  engagements,  besides  the  loafing  hour,  the 
theatre,  concert,  special  lectures  galore,  the  newspapers  and 
magazines  to  scan,  the  letters  to  write  home  and  other  places, 
applications  for  schools  to  make,  one  might  exclaim:  "And 
when  do  they  find  time  to  study?"  In  ancient  times  and  in 
the  Middle  Ages  the  scholars  shut  themselves  away  from  the 
world,  quiet  as  it  was,  in  order  to  avoid  the  distractions 
against  thinking.  While  they  erred  in  not  recognizing  that 
the  senses  are  the  source  of  all  knowledge,  were  they  not  wise 
in  recognizing  that  to  think  effectively  demands  solitude  ? 

Many  students  take  on  altogether  too  many  activities.  In 
my  own  observation  I  have  known  several  students  who  ar- 
rested their  development  badly  by  getting  too  many  irons  in 
the  fire.  A  student's  popularity  is  not  infrequently  the  cause 
of  his  intellectual  arrest.  By  attempting  debates,  athletics, 
dramatics,  study,  and  society  all  at  the  same  time,  his  energies 
are  dissipated,  his  growth  stunted,  while  his  plodding  com- 
panion, by  everlastingly  keeping  at  a  few  things,  finally  be- 
comes a  master  and  frequently  astonishes  even  himself  as  well 


282    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

as  his  acquaintances.  Even  short  courses  with  too  much 
variety,  except  for  inspiration,  are  uneconomical  because  they 
do  not  lay  permanent  foundations.  Too  many  open  lecture 
courses  provided  by  faculties  may  easily  be  distracting  and  a 
source  of  dissipation.  The  student  must  learn  to  say  no  to 
the  siren's  voice  which  continually  beckons  him  to  unrelated 
fields. 

I  sometimes  feel  that  there  ought  to  be  some  course  labelled 
"thinking,"  in  which  the  individual  should  be  isolated  from 
everybody  long  enough  to  empty  his  mind  of  all  ideas  which 
are  merely  echoes,  and  then  to  discern  what  are  really  his 
own.  With  all  the  distraction  of  congested  social  life,  the 
time  may  come  when  it  would  be  a  blessing  for  the  state  to 
imprison  a  few  great  men  each  year  and  allow  them  only  pen, 
ink,  and  paper.  It  may  have  been  a  fortunate  thing  for  the 
world  that  John  Bunyan  languished  in  prison  until  his  thoughts 
had  time  to  germinate  and  come  to  full  fruition.  Possibly  the 
blind  Milton,  shut  away  from  the  distractions  of  visual  stimuli, 
may  have  looked  within  and  discovered  thoughts  struggling 
for  expression,  but  stifled  with  the  ephemeral  ideas  of  sense- 
perception. 

While  we  are  rightly  emphasizing  group  activities  as  an  aid 
in  developing  altruism,  I  wonder  whether  students  do  not 
sometimes  misinterpret  its  meaning.  Self-activity  is  funda- 
mental in  the  process  of  acquisition  of  knowledge.  No  knowl- 
edge is  of  much  value  that  is  not  made  one's  own  personal  pos- 
session. This  means  more  than  the  recital  of  words  and  for- 
mulas gained  from  books  and  companions.  In  their  desire  to 
be  helpful,  I  sometimes  see  students  in  groups,  even  sitting  on 
the  stairways  where  the  crowds  are  passing,  believing  they  are 
studying  together.  When  one  hears  the  bits  of  gossip  inter- 
spersed between  the  formulas,  the  declensions,  and  historical 
dates,  one  wonders  where  the  calm  reflection,  deep  concen- 
tration, analysis,  comparison,  doubt,  contemplation,  delibera- 
tion, complete  abstraction,  enter  in.  An  oversocial  room- 
mate who  persists  in  retailing  the  gossip  of  the  day  during  the 
hour  set  apart  for  study  is  an  uneconomical  acquisition.     Psy- 


THINKING   AND   LEARNING   TO   THINK  283 

chology  has  thoroughly  demonstrated  that  we  can  consciously 
attend  economically  to  only  one  set  of  ideas  at  a  time.  Even 
much  note-taking  in  the  class  is  an  uneconomical  distraction. 
The  faithful  but  misguided  student  frequently  attempts  to 
take  down  every  word  uttered.  He  deceives  himself,  for 
what  he  hopes  to  carry  under  his  arm  he  should  have  in  his 
head.  No  wonder  that  sometimes  the  less  scrupulous  one 
who  cuts  class  and  borrows  notes  instead  of  writing  them 
fares  about  as  well. 

In  student  life  it  is  important  to  thoroughly  master  a  task 
as  speedily  as  possible.  To  skim  over  a  lesson  and  leave  it 
without  mastery  is  wasteful.  The  process  may  be  repeated  a 
dozen  times  in  this  way  and  then  be  only  half  learned.  Hence, 
"whatsoever  thou  findest  to  do,  do  it  with  all  thy  mind  and 
with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  strength." 

May  I  say  a  word  on  the  ethics  of  cramming  for  examina- 
tions ?  The  method  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  Ideas  are  not 
grasped,  associations  are  not  made,  brain  tracks  are  not  made 
permanent,  and  even  though  the  student  might  pass  an  ex- 
amination on  such  possessions,  like  the  notes  of  an  insolvent 
bank  they  are  found  to  be  worthless  trash  when  put  to  real 
use.  Instead  of  wisdom  more  to  be  prized  than  fine  gold, 
such  a  process  may  leave  one  with  only  bogus  certificates. 
Make  your  mental  acquisitions  absolutely  your  own  while 
going  over  the  subject  day  by  day,  take  ten  hours  of  sleep 
before  every  examination  day,  and  the  results  need  not  be 
feared.  In  trying  to  gain  possessions  most  economically  and 
to  make  them  most  permanent,  heed  the  following  recipe: 
Study  your  lesson  as  if  you  expected  to  teach  it.  When  you 
can  teach  it  to  some  one  else  you  possess  it.  Frequently  actu- 
ally try  to  teach  your  lesson.  If  your  roommate  will  not 
submit,  inflict  it  upon  an  imaginary  pupil. 

(See  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  LXXI,  Septem- 
ber, 1907,  where  several  of  the  preceding  paragraphs  were 
first  published  by  the  writer  under  the  title  "Some  Ethical 
Aspects  of  Mental  Economy.") 


284         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Enumerate  several  false  traditions  now  current.  2.  Make  a  list  of 
superstitions  that  are  really  heeded  by  otherwise  intelligent  persons.  3. 
Which  do  pupils  usually  prefer  to  do:  memorize  the  text-book  ideas  or  think 
out  problems  for  themselves?  Why?  4.  What  schoolroom  procedures 
seem  to  stimulate  pupils  to  think?  What  seem  to  train  away  from  inde- 
pendent thinking?  5.  In  the  laboratory  work  that  you  have  observed  in 
the  high  school  has  independent  thinking  been  a  dominant  characteristic? 
6.  As  ordinarily  taught,  does  history  encourage  thinking?  7.  Try  to 
make  out  a  set  of  thought-provoking  questions  on  some  phase  of  history, 
say,  Washington's  administration  or  Wilson's  administration.  (Be  sure 
that  the  answers  do  not  merely  call  for  memorized  statements.)  8.  Do 
pupils  who  recite  glibly  in  geometry  necessarily  reason  carefully?  9. 
What  are  some  of  the  causes  of  superficial  reasoning  in  geometry?  10.  Is 
it  correct  to  say  "slow  but  sure"  with  reference  to  efficiency  in  thinking? 

11.  Are  slow  readers  better  than  rapid  readers  in  comprehension  of  thought  ? 

12.  May  the  project  method  stimulate  efficient  thinking? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chaps.  XX,  XXII,  XXIII. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chaps.  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

3.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  XX,  XXI,  XXII. 

4.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chap.  XVIII. 

5.  Miller,  Directing  Study,  chaps.  Ill,  VII. 

6.  Norsworthy  and  Whitley,  Psychology  of  Childhood,  chap.  X. 

7.  Parker,  Methods  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools,  chap.  IX. 

8.  Pyle,  The  Science  of  Human  Nature,  chap.  VIII. 

9..  Schaeffer,  Thinking  and  Learning  to  Think.     Entire  book. 

10.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  X. 

11,  Woodworth,  Psychology :  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chap.  XVIII. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
INDUCTIVE  AND  DEDUCTIVE  THINKING 

Meaning  of  Induction. — All  laws,  rules,  generalizations,  or 
classifications  have  been  discovered  at  some  time  by  observ- 
ing a  number  of  individual  cases.  In  much  of  our  learning  at 
the  present  time,  especially  in  school,  we  accept  ready-made 
the  great  majority  of  such  laws  or  generalizations.  But  some- 
body had  to  work  them  out  from  individual  cases.  This 
process  of  discovery  is  termed  induction.  It  may  be  defined 
as  follows:  Induction  is  a  process  of  thinking  in  which  the 
learner  discovers  laws  or  generalizations  from  individual  data. 

Examples  of  Induction. — Here  is  an  apple-blossom  with  five 
petals.  I  examine  several  others,  and  finding  the  same  num- 
ber in  each  and  that  the  arrangement  is  regular,  I  conclude 
that  there  are  five  petals  on  every  apple-blossom.  People 
saw  a  good  many  swans  all  of  which  were  white,  and  the 
belief  that  all  swans  were  white  became  firmly  fixed.  We 
now  know,  however,  that  there  are  black  swans.  But  as  long 
as  only  white  swans  had  been  seen,  the  former  conclusion  was 
a  legitimate  induction.  For  thousands  of  years  people  be- 
lieved the  earth  to  be  flat  and  plate-shaped.  They  arrived  at 
these  conclusions  just  as  we  should  do  in  case  we  had  not 
been  taught  differently.  We  never  noticed  evidence  of  its 
sphericity,  and  from  every  point  of  view  the  line  of  meeting 
of  the  earth  and  sky  seems  to  form  a  circle,  and  we  seem  to 
stand  in  the  centre  of  the  circular  plane  surface. 

When  the  child  first  perceives  things,  they  are  experienced 
as  isolated  things  without  relationship  or  laws.  Gradually  as 
experiences  multiply  they  seem  to  occur  in  regular  orders  and 
sequences,  and  connections  seem  to  obtain  among  various 
things.  These  experiences  gradually  become  classified  and 
arranged  according  to  laws  apparent  to  the  child.     This  is 

285 


286         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

precisely  what  occurs  when  the  adult  views  new  experiences. 
At  first  each  occurrence  is  viewed  singly,  but  as  other  phe- 
nomena occur  they  gradually  become  classified.  The  main 
difference  here  between  the  child  and  the  adult  is  that  the 
adult  mind  arrives  at  more  general  laws,  which  are  more  cor- 
rect, and  instead  of  mere  chance  associational  bonds  that 
assist  in  classification  the  adult  seeks  and  finds  more  causal 
relations.  However,  the  ordinary  adult  is  far  from  being 
critical  and  accurate,  and  many  generalizations  are  incorrect 
and  even  absurd.  It  is  only  the  careful  scientist  who  is  able 
to  make  correct  inductions.  Even  many  of  his  conclusions 
are  apt  to  be  very  imperfect  and  need  continual  revision.  The 
true  scientist  is  cautious  about  dogmatic  assertions,  and  waits 
until  sufficient  evidence  is  collected  before  proclaiming  his  be- 
liefs. Darwin,  though  believing  in  certain  conclusions  for  a 
long  time,  was  willing  to  collect  materials  and  to  observe  for 
thirty  years  before  publishing  his  conclusions  to  the  world. 

Imperfect  Induction. — Oftentimes  the  generalizations  de- 
rived through  induction  are  incorrect.  In  fact,  most  conclu- 
sions so  derived  are  at  first  guesses  or  hypotheses.  This  is 
true  of  the  thinking  of  the  savage  or  the  scientist.  The  sav- 
age stops  with  the  guess,  the  scientist  keeps  on  guessing  and 
verifying.  Some  farmers,  for  example,  are  sure  that  three 
white  frosts  bring  a  rain;  that  planting  potatoes  in  the  new  of 
the  moon  brings  bumper  crops;  that  toads  and  earthworms 
rain  down.  The  savage  believes  that  spirits  eat  the  food 
which  is  left  in  the  forest  for  their  propitiation;  he  resorts  to 
charms,  incantations,  and  sorcery  in  the  cure  of  disease.  All 
such  conclusions  are  arrived  at  because  of  imperfect  induction 
and  lack  of  testing. 

Children's  Inductions. — Children  do  much  more  thinking 
than  they  are  credited  with.  Much  of  their  thinking  has  one 
characteristic  of  scientific  thinking,  viz.,  independence.  Their 
judgments  are  apt  to  lack  accuracy  because  they  jump  at  con- 
clusions before  gaining  sufficient  data,  and  they  do  not  try 
to  verify  them.  Many  of  their  conclusions,  however,  are  bet- 
ter illustrations  of  genuine  inductions  than  the  echoings  of 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING  287 

some  older  people.  My  boy  of  4  said  one  cold  day  on  reach- 
ing a  park:  **  Let  us  hurry,  for  it  will  be  cold  here."  I  inquired 
why.  "Because  the  trees  make  the  wind  blow,"  he  replied. 
G.,  a  girl  of  5,  brought  me  some  elderberry-blossoms  and 
asked:  ''What  are  these?  V^hat  becomes  of  them?"  She 
was  told  that  they  become  fruit.  "Then,  do  cherries  have 
blossoms  before  the  cherries  grow?"  she  inquired.  "Yes,"  I 
said.  "Do  apples  have  blossoms?"  "Yes."  "Do  all  fruits 
have  flowers  first?"  Then  came  the  statement:  "There  will 
be  no  berries  if  we  pick  off  the  flowers."  Here  we  have  a 
perfectly  definite  chain  of  induction,  and  the  conclusion  was 
independently  drawn  from  the  data  at  hand. 

When  the  child  says  "I  runned,"  "I  singed,"  "I  hurted 
myself,"  he  is  applying  conclusions  reached  inductively.  The 
course  of  reasoning  is  not  a  conscious  process,  but  is  just  as 
unerring  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  deliberate  analysis  and  syn- 
thesis. Many  misspellings  are  the  result  of  reasoning  based 
upon  analogies.  Certain  values  are  learned  for  given  letters, 
and  the  inference  is  drawn  that  the  same  values  will  always 
obtain.  The  misspelling  is  not  the  result  of  illogical  reason- 
ing, but  quite  the  contrary.  The  following  actual  mistakes 
illustrate  the  point  advanced:  meny,  sed,  peeple,  mutch,  eny, 
lern,  axadent,  suckseed,  ashure.  To  spell  correctly  many  words 
of  the  English  language  one  must  be  able  to  disregard  logic 
and  remember  isolated  combinations  of  sounds. 

The  child,  like  the  savage,  is  anthropomorphic,  and  soon 
learns  to  ascribe  very  concrete  causes  to  actions  not  visible 
and  to  forces  not  understood.  For  example,  the  wind  is 
caused  by  some  one  waving  a  big  fan;  the  rain  comes  down 
because  some  one  has  made  holes  in  the  sky;  the  lightning  is 
caused  by  God  fighting  the  gas  quickly;  thunder  is  the  sound 
made  by  a  wagon  in  the  sky,  or  sometimes  it  is  God  groaning 
or  walking  on  the  floor.  Children  develop  their  own  unique 
ideas  on  moral  questions.  They  are  quite  certain  to  conclude 
that  acts  which  are  forbidden  are  wrong  and  that  all  not  for- 
bidden are  perfectly  right.  Through  our  injudicious  methods 
of  correction  they  are  apt  to  conclude  that  sin  consists  not  in 


288    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

the  doing  of  certain  things  but  in  getting  caught.  Thus  the 
"protective  He"  comes  to  be  resorted  to  and  beheved  to  be 
right.  Children's  inductions  concerning  the  Deity,  reUgion, 
time,  the  self,  distance,  are  all  very  naive,  but  strikingly  inde- 
pendent of  authority. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  that  when  the  child  begins  school 
he  begins  to  surrender  much  of  his  independence  of  thinking. 
Being  set  to  learning  books  instead  of  continuing  with  the 
world  of  objective  reality,  he  soon  learns  to  rely  on  authority 
instead  of  upon  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses.  Again,  his 
questionings  are  silenced  by  our  methods  and  he  ceases  to  be 
an  alert  inquirer  while  in  school.  The  teacher  frequently 
does  all  the  interrogating  and  marks  him  down  for  wrong 
answers  and  for  ignorance  displayed  by  his  questions.  No 
wonder  that  he  subconsciously  arrives  at  the  induction:  ''It 
pays  to  be  silent  and  to  expose  as  little  ignorance  as  possible." 
Verbatim  memory  for  the  day  comes  to  be  the  best-paying 
capital. 

Illustrations  of  Inductive  Exercises. — A  few  examples  of  the 
inductive  development  of  certain  generalizations  will  be  given. 
Of  course  they  are  much  abridged.  The  teacher  might  have 
to  ask  many  more  questions.  The  procedure  is  not  indepen- 
dent discovery.  The  teacher  selects  the  conditions  and  aims 
to  get  the  pupils  to  draw  valid  conclusions.  To  accomplish 
even  that  means  much  and  cannot  fail  to  develop  a  new  atti- 
tude toward  study.     The  first  illustration  is  from  physics. 

Take  a  tube  which  is  nearly  full  of  water  and  blow  Into  it. 
A  sound  of  a  certain  pitch  Is  produced.  Lengthen  the  tube  by 
pouring  out  part  of  the  water  and  a  lower  tone  is  produced. 
Pour  out  still  more  water,  thereby  lengthening  the  tube,  and 
a  still  lower  tone  Is  produced.  Reverse  the  order  of  proce- 
dure and  note  results.  What  may  be  concluded  from  this 
experiment?  That  the  longer  the  tube  the  lower  the  tone; 
the  shorter  the  tube  the  higher  the  tone. 

The  following  Illustrations  will  serve  to  show  how  the  proc- 
ess of  induction  may  be  profitably  employed  in  mathematics. 
Ordinarily  the  pupils  are  given  a  rule  and  then  required  to 


INDUCTIVE  AND   DEDUCTIVE  THINKING         289 

work  examples  according  to  the  rule.  It  is  true  they  can 
learn  the  process  and  oftentimes  work  the  examples  just  as 
accurately  and  speedily  as  if  they  had  developed  the  rule  in- 
ductively. But  have  they  learned  to  think  mathematically  ? 
The  procedure  is  much  like  being  asked  to  follow  a  cook- 
book recipe.  The  cake  may  turn  out  all  right,  but  if  some- 
thing goes  wrong  intelligence  has  not  been  developed  by 
which  to  correct  the  mistake. 

I.  Aim.  To  discover  inductively  the  rule  for  pointing  off  the 
product  in  the  multiplication  of  decimals. 

II.  Presuppose  a  knowledge  of  (i)  multiplication  of  integral  num- 
bers, (2)  reading  and  writing  of  decimals,  (3)  the  reduction  of  common 
fractions  to  decimals,  (4)  the  reduction  of  decimal  fractions  to  common 
fractions. 

III.  Data  and  course  of  inductive  reasoning: 

1.  Write  for  illustration  the  following  examples: 

a.  3/10  X  2/10  =  6/100. 

b.  3/10  X  5/10  =  15/100. 

c.  5/100  X  5/10  =  25/1000. 

2.  Ask  the  pupils  to  rewrite,  without  performing  the  operations, 

the  Examples  a,  b,  c  in  decimal  form,  and  they  will  give: 

d.  .3  X  .2  =  ? 
&.  .3  X  .5  =  ? 
c.   .05  X  .5  =  ? 

3.  Questions  and  answers: 

What  was  the  product  of  3/10  X  2/10?     Ans.:  6/100. 
Write  the  product  in  the  form  of  a  decimal.     Ans.:  .06. 
What,  therefore,  should  be  the  product  of  .3  X  .2  ?     Ans. : 
6/100  or  .06. 

What  was  the  product  of  3/10  X  5/10?    Ans.:  15/100. 
Write  the  product  as  a  decimal.     Ans.:  .15. 
What,  therefore,  should  be  the  product  of  .3  X  .5  ?     Ans.  : 
15/100  or  .15. 

What  was  the  product  of  5/100  X  5/10  ?     Ans. :  25/1000. 
Write  the  product  as  a  decimal.     Ans.:  .025. 
What,  therefore,  should  be  the  product  of  .05  X  .5  ?    Ans. : 
25/1000  or  .025. 


290         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

How  many  decimal  places  in  .3  ?     Ans. :  One. 
How  many  decimal  places  in  .2?     Ans.:  One. 
How  many  decimal  places  in  the  product  of  .3  X  .2? 
Ans.:  Two. 

How  many  in  the  multiplicand  in  example  b  ?    Ans. :   One. 
How  many  in  the  multiplier?     Ans.:  One. 
How  many  in  the  product?     Ajis.:  Two. 
How  many  in  the  multiplier,  how  many  in  the  multipli- 
cand, and  how  many  in  the  product  in  Example  c? 

In  Examples  a,  b,  c  compare  the  number  of  decimal  places 
in  both  the  multiplier  and  the  multiplicand  with  those 
in  the  product.  Ans.:  There  are  as  many  in  the  prod- 
uct as  in  both  multiplier  and  multiplicand  taken  to- 
gether. 

IV.  Make  a  rule  for  pointing  off  the  product  in  the  multiplication 
of  decimals.  Ans.:  Point  off  as  many  decimal  places  in  the  product 
as  there  are  in  both  multiplicand  and  multiplier  taken  together. 

The  laws  of  decimal-fraction  notation  and  numeration  may 
be  discovered  and  stated  by  pupils  themselves.  Presupposing 
that  the  decimal  notation  for  integral  numbers  is  understood, 
the  following  questions  may  be  asked  concerning  the  expres- 
sion ii,iii :  What  is  the  value  of  the  second  figure  from  the 
right  as  compared  with  the  first  i  ?  Ans. :  Ten  times  as  great. 
The  third  with  the  second?  The  fourth  with  the  third,  etc.? 
What  is  the  name  of  each  order?  Now,  how  does  the  third 
figure  from  the  right  compare  with  the  fourth?  The  second 
with  the  third  ?  The  first  with  the  second  ?  What  would  be 
the  value  of  the  next  order  to  the  right  as  compared  with  the 
first?  Ans.:  One-tenth.  The  next?  Ans.:  One-hundredth. 
What  should  be  the  name  of  each?  Now  we  place  a  point 
between  the  whole  number  and  the  fraction  to  indicate  the 
separation.  How  read  i  ?  If  I  place  a  point  to  the  left  of  it, 
what  does  it  become?  ii.i,  how  read?  .1,  how  read?  11, 
how  read  ? 

The  illustration  on  next  page  shows  how  the  learner  may 
arrive  at  the  rule  for  finding  (a)  the  area  of  a  rectangle,  and 
(b)  the  area  of  a  triangle.  Draw  a  rectangle,  for  example, 
one  that  represents  a  surface  of  6  x  4  . 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING 


291 


(a)  Divide  it  into  squares.  How  many  squares  in  the 
upper  row?  Ans.:  Six.  How  many  in  the  next?  Ans.:  Six. 
How  many  in  each  row  ?  How  many  rows  of  squares  ?  Ans. : 
Four.  Then  if  there  are  six  squares  in  each  of  four  rows,  how 
many  squares?  Ans.:  Twenty-four  squares.  State  how  you 
found  this.    ^W5.;  By  multiplying  six  squares  by  four.    What 


y 

y 

y 

y' 

^" 

y 

./ 

y 

FIGURE  USED  IN  DEVELOPING  RULE  FOR  FINDING 
AREA  OF  RECTANGLE  AND  TRIANGLE 


do  each  of  the  six  squares  Kepresent?  Ans.:  A  square  foot. 
Then  state  the  rule  for  finding  the  area  of  a  rectangle.  By 
this  method  it  will  be  seen  easily  that  we  obtain  square  feet 
because  we  started  with  a  square  foot  as  the  unit.  Similarly 
the  rule  for  finding  the  cubic  contents  of  a  rectangular  solid 
can  be  developed.  In  fact,  practically  all  of  the  rules  in  the 
mensuration  of  surfaces  and  solids  can  be  thus  built  up. 

(6)  Draw  a  diagonal  of  the  rectangle  and  ask:  How  do  the 
two  parts  of  the  rectangle  produced  by  drawing  the  diagonal 
compare  in  size?  Ans.:  It  is  manifest  that  they  are  equal. 
What  part  of  the  rectangle  is  each  of  the  triangles?  How 
does  the  base  of  each  triangle  compare  with  the  length  of  the 
rectangle?  Ans.:  They  are  equal.  How  do  the  heights  or 
altitudes  of  the  triangle  compare  with  the  width  of  the  rec- 
tangle? Ans.:  They  are  equal.  State  again  the  rule  for 
finding  the  area  of  a  rectangle.  Then,  how  shall  we  find  the 
area  of  each  triangle  ?  State  the  rule  for  finding  the  area  of 
any  right  triangle,  when  the  base  and  altitude  are  given. 
This  could  be  extended  so  as  to  hold  for  any  triangle. 


292         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Examples  from  algebra  are  very  easy  to  find.  By  actual 
division  get  the  following  results: 

a^  —  b^-7-a— b=a  +  b 
a^  -  b^  -^a  -  b  =  a"^  +ab  +b^ 
a^  -b^  ^  a  -b  =  a^  +  a?b  +  ab"^  +  W 
a^  -b^  ^  a  -b  =  a^  -[-a^b  +  aW  +  a¥  +  b^ 

a^o  -^10  ^  a  -b  =  a^  +  a%  +  aW  +  a%^  +  w'b^  +  a^Z^  +  a^W  + 
a^-J  +  a¥  +  b^ 

What  is  the  nature  of  the  dividend  ?  Ans.:  The  difference 
of  like  powers  of  the  two  numbers.  The  nature  of  the  divisor  ? 
Ans,:  The  difference  between  the  two  numbers.  Are  all  of 
the  given  dividends  divisible  by  a  —  b?  Do  you  think 
^100  _  ^100  divisible  by  a  -  6  ?  a^  -  &^  and  a°  -  6°  by  a  -  &  ? 
Do  the  last  belong  to  the  same  class  as  the  first  ?  State  what 
you  believe  to  be  true,  i.  e.,  the  law  or  rule.  Proceed  in  a  simi- 
lar manner  to  develop  the  law  of  exponents,  number  of  terms, 
etc.,  in  the  quotient. 

As  another  illustration  take  the  following  (from  A  School 
Algebra,  by  C.  A.  Van  Velzer  and  C.  S.  Slichter,  p.  164): 

What  does  a~a^a^  equal?     What  then  does  (a^Y  equal? 
What  does  a^a^a^  equal?     What  then  does  (a^y  equal? 
What  does  a%%^  equal?     What  then  does  (3^)^  equal? 
What  does  a^a^a^  equal?     What  then  does  {a^y  equal? 
What  does  a^a^a^  equal?     What  then  does  {a^Y  equal? 
What  does  a'^a'^a^aP-  equal?     What  then  does  {a^Y  equal? 
What  does  the  product  of  r  factors  each  of  which  is  a^  equal  ? 
What  does  {a^'Y  equal? 

The  rth  power  of  the  nth.  power  of  a  number  is  equal  to  the 
wrth  power  of  that  number ;  this  is  expressed  in  the  formula 

Order  of  Instruction. — The  teacher,  knowing  that  the  in- 
ductive process  is  the  natural  order  in  which  the  mind  moves, 
will  arrange  his  instruction  so  as  to  further  the  habit  and  to 
assist  in  securing  as  a  habit  what  is  not  very  natural,  viz.,  a 
critical  evaluation  of  data.     This  does  not  mean  that  teachers 


INDUCTIVE  AND   DEDUCTIVE  THINKING         293 

should  never  tell  anything.  To  know  when  to  tell,  what  to 
tell,  and  how  to  tell  constitute  high  teaching  art.  But  the 
order  should  be  one  of  inductive  unfoldment  of  ideas;  a  skilful 
marshalling  of  facts,  propounding  of  questions,  and  leading 
the  learner  to  draw  conclusions  for  himself  as  far  as  possible. 
Reasoning  either  by  induction  or  deduction  means  deriving 
relational  knowledge.  Merely  gathering  facts  without  estab- 
lishing new  relations  among  them  is  not  reasoning  at  all. 

Now  notice  that  usually  the  rule  is  stated  at  the  outset,  the 
pupil  told  to  learn  it,  and  then  given  examples  for  practice. 
By  that  procedure  he  is  not  trained  in  reasoning  but  merely 
in  computingy  according  to  rule.  Proof  should  come  at  some 
stage,  but  that  is  much  harder.  That  is  a  deductive  proce- 
dure. He  should  be  trained  to  think  and  to  work  from  prin- 
ciples rather  than  from  rules. 

Relation  of  the  Text-Book  to  Induction. — Some  have  con- 
tended that  text-books  ought  to  give  generalizations  only; 
others  that  they  ought  to  give  the  detailed  facts  but  omit  the 
generalizations  and  rules,  leaving  these  to  be  worked  out  by 
pupils,  with  the  teacher's  help.  In  the  first  kind  of  book  the 
particulars  would  need  to  be  supplied  by  the  teacher.  This 
works  fairly  well  in  some  subjects  with  skilful  teachers.  For 
example,  an  arithmetic  on  this  plan  would  begin  each  case 
with  the  statement  of  the  rule  and  then  follow  with  examples 
and  problems  for  application.  All  preliminary  illustrative 
material  would  be  omitted.  Such  a  book  in  the  hands  of  a 
poor  teacher  would  be  very  uninteresting  and  difficult.  Many 
of  the  text-books  in  the  German  schools  are  of  this  type. 
Even  in  geography  there  is  the  merest  outline  and  a  summary 
of  generalizations.  Geographies  in  this  country  have  been  of 
this  type,  but  the  newer  ones  furnish  much  material.  The 
ones  which  furnish  more  material  are  manifestly  more  desir- 
able than  those  which  are  merely  boiled-down  summaries. 
Only  the  teacher  with  an  abundance  of  time  and  equipment 
can  furnish  the  many  details  necessary.  Even  then  the  well- 
written  text-book  has  the  materials  better  selected  and  ar- 
ranged than  can  be  done  for  a  particular  class  by  most  teachers. 


294 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


A  book  of  facts  with  the  generahzations  omitted  is  often  to 
be  found  in  our  newer  arithmetics.  They  are  better  than  the 
book  with  only  the  generahzations.  However,  in  unskilled 
hands  they  produce  chaotic  results.  Knowledge  needs  classi- 
fication and  ticketing  in  order  to  be  usable.  The  rules  and 
generalizations  fulfil  the  same  functions  as  words.  They  help 
to  isolate  knowledge,  to  classify  it,  and  to  form  a  centre  about 
which  to  group  new  related  knowledge.  A  good  text-book 
contains  plenty  of  material.  This  material  should  be  arranged 
in  logical  sequence,  selected  according  to  psychological  needs, 
and  in  such  a  way  that  the  learner  who  follows  the  discussion 
thoughtfully  foresees  the  generalization  before  reaching  it. 
The  book  statement  of  the  generalization  should,  of  course, 
be  the  best,  and  be  calculated  to  clarify  and  enlarge  the  learn- 
er's notions.  In  many  cases  the  teacher  may  go  over  the 
same  lesson  orally  before  assigning  the  text  to  be  read.  The 
book  is  then  used  to  clarify  and  impress  the  knowledge  more 
firmly.  In  other  cases  the  pupils  may  safely  be  set  to  work 
out  the  lesson  themselves.  A  book  properly  arranged  meets 
their  apperceptions  and  furnishes  the  data  necessary  for  the 
development  of  every  generalization.  Every  good  text-book 
for  older  pupils  should  be  so  arranged  that  the  learner  could 
use  it  to  good  advantage  without  a  teacher.  With  a  teacher 
he  should  be  able  to  use  it  to  still  better  advantage. 

But  back  of  the  text-book  in  most  subjects  there  must  be 
objective  experiences  gained  at  first  hand.  The  understand- 
ing of  the  text-book  is  made  possible  only  when  it  calls  up 
personal  observations  and  experiences.  To  be  sure,  the  new 
whole  need  not  have  been  experienced,  but  the  elements  com- 
posing the  new  whole  must  have  been.  In  the  material  sci- 
ences laboratory  experiments  and  demonstrations  should  make 
clear  each  step  whenever  possible.  From  the  very  nature  of 
mind  it  is  necessary  that  the  elementary  notions  in  all  sub- 
jects should  be  built  up  objectively. 

Importance  and  Use  of  Inductive  Methods. — What  will  the 
pupil  gain  by  being  required  to  form  conclusions  for  himself  ? 
In  some  cases  results  would  be  secured  more  quickly  by  simply 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING  295 

giving  the  rule  and  requiring  him  to  apply  it.  For  example, 
the  rule  for  pointing  off  in  multiplication  of  decimals  can  be 
committed  to  memory  easily  and  its  application  learned  with- 
out understanding  a  shadow  of  the  reason  therefor.  The  pupil 
could  quickly  learn  to  perform  the  operation  without  mistakes 
and  undoubtedly  would  remember  it  as  long  as  if  acquired  in 
a  more  laborious  manner.  Then  what  is  gained  by  the  more 
laborious  process  ?  Nothing,  provided  computation  is  the  only 
end  in  view.  But  if  arithmetic  is  to  be  "a  study  which  trains 
the  reasoning  powers,"  the  pupil  must  use  it  as  a  means  of 
reasoning.  To  learn  "that  he  must  invert  the  terms  of  the 
divisor  and  multiply"  is  a  mere  act  of  memory  and  involves 
no  real  thinking,  but  to  know  why  he  does  involves  thinking 
to  a  high  degree.  We  wish  to  inculcate  hahits  of  inductive 
reasoning. 

Every  successful  man  is  a  good  inductive  reasoner.  The 
professor  in  science  has  no  monopoly  on  induction.  The 
business  man  has  equal  need  of  forming  independent  conclu- 
sions from  everyday  data.  The  merchant,  the  banker,  any 
financier  must  watch  daily  factors  that  are  liable  to  affect  the 
markets,  and  from  these  factors  they  must  draw  conclusions 
as  to  the  course  of  procedure.  No  rule  can  be  laid  down  that 
will  guide  infallibly,  for  exactly  the  same  factors  never  enter 
into  combination  twice.  Hence  each  set  of  factors  should 
lead  to  independent  conclusions.  Since  the  mind  works  ac- 
cording to  habits  acquired.  It  Is  of  the  highest  importance  to 
give  the  mind  In  early  life  as  strong  a  tendency  as  possible 
toward  inductive  thinking. 

The  dry-goods  merchant,  to  be  successful,  has  to  determine 
carefully  in  advance  what  kind  of  goods  to  purchase  for  the 
coming  season.  He  must  be  guided  by  the  experiences  of  past 
seasons  and  by  the  present  conditions  of  trade,  and  by  all  the 
factors  that  affect  trade.  The  past  season  will  tell  him  whether 
woollen  or  cotton  goods  sold  best,  and  what  grade,  and  the 
quantity.  The  present  condition  of  the  money  market  will 
enable  him  to  guess  how  freely  people  will  spend  their  money; 
local  conditions,  as  taxes  and  philanthropic  enterprises,  will 


296         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

enable  him  to  guess  how  much  money  will  be  diverted  into 
other  channels  and  how  much  may  be  left  to  purchase  from 
him.  He  must  consider  the  growth  of  the  population  of  his 
trade  district,  also  the  number  of  competing  merchants  who 
have  moved  into  or  away  from  his  neighborhood;  and  Dame 
Fashion  must  be  consulted  for  changes  of  styles.  Besides 
these,  a  host  of  other  factors  enter  most  intimately  into  the 
trade  relations  to  affect  the  amount  and  quality  of  the  stock 
to  be  purchased.  The  merchant  who  can  look  ahead,  foresee 
advantages  and  disadvantages,  is  the  successful  one.  That 
is,  the  one  who  makes  the  widest,  most  careful  inductions  is 
generally  the  most  prosperous.  It  often  takes  a  year  or  years 
to  prove  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  generalizations  which  he 
makes,  and  the  bits  of  evidence  collected  in  testing  his  theories 
are  made  the  basis  of  new  generalizations. 

The  United  States  Weather  Bureau  makes  its  daily  fore- 
casts from  the  data  relating  to  barometric  and  thermometric 
readings,  wind  velocities  at  different  points,  and  the  various 
changes  in  temperature,  atmospheric  pressure  and  humidity. 
The  forecasts  are  applied  inductive  conclusions  asserting 
probable  conditions.  The  judge  on  the  bench  or  the  jury 
listening  to  a  trial  has  problems  of  induction  to  deal  with. 
The  testimony  of  witnesses  is  to  form  the  basis  for  generaliza- 
tions, or,  in  other  words,  it  contains  the  individual  notions 
used  in  forming  the  general  notions.  Similarly  in  every  oc- 
cupation there  is  opportunity  and  necessity  for  arriving  at 
new  conclusions  through  the  consideration  of  particular  cases. 
True,  in  many  cases  the  mind  cannot  isolate  the  data  as 
clearly  nor  draw  as  definite  conclusions  as  in  mathematical 
problems.  But  even  in  the  most  "offhand"  guess  the  mind 
subconsciously  generalizes  from  data  which  have  been  gath- 
ered previously.  Even  our  unexplainable  prejudices  are  re- 
sults of  induction. 

Therefore,  how  important  that  the  pupil  be  trained  in  the 
careful  collection  of  evidence  and  in  weighing  it  accurately 
instead  of  jumping  at  conclusions!  The  person  who  habitu- 
ally decides  things  too  hastily  and  then  spends  his  time  re- 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING  297 

gretting  his  conclusions,  reasons  inductively  no  less  than  the 
one  who  arrives  at  a  safe  conclusion,  but  the  induction  of  the 
former  is  imperfect. 

Pupils,  as  well  as  scientists,  should  be  taught  to  form  hy- 
potheses to  account  for  certain  phenomena.  Hypotheses  are 
guesses,  but  good  guesses  based  upon  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  conditions  entering  into  the  problem.  The  hypothesis 
should  be  (i)  conceivable  in  the  light  of  the  facts;  (2)  it  should 
be  in  accord  with  the  facts;  (3)  it  should  explain  the  known 
facts;  and  (4)  should  be  of  such  a  character  that  inductions 
can  be  made  from  it.  When  hypotheses  have  stood  the  fire 
of  criticism  and  have  become  well  established  they  are  termed 
theories.  The  atomic  theory  and  the  nebular  theory  were 
simply  hypotheses  or  guesses  which  seemed  to  account  for 
certain  phenomena  or  relationships  that  existed,  and  from 
these  guesses  much  actual  progress  in  further  knowledge  has 
been  made  possible.  The  theory  of  a  universal  ether  was  at 
first  propounded  as  an  hypothesis  attempting  to  explain  some 
problems  concerning  the  passage  of  light  and  heat  rays.  There 
were  certain  apparently  demonstrated  facts  demanding  ex- 
planation. The  hypothesis  which  was  put  forth  presented 
astounding  difficulties  of  conception,  but  it  has  proved  so  val- 
uable in  working  out  practical  applications,  and  its  proof  has 
been  apparently  so  incontrovertible  that  it  has  long  been  a 
well-accepted  theory.  Even  now,  however,  new  hypotheses 
and  theories  looking  toward  the  explanation  of  many  of  the 
phenomena  of  heat  and  light  are  being  propounded. 

The  Deductive  Method. — In  deduction  a  law,  rule,  hy- 
pothesis, or  generalization  is  the  starting-point  in  thinking. 
Some  one  has  previously  worked  out  the  conclusion  from  par- 
ticular cases.  The  problem  now  is  to  take  the  conclusion  and 
(a)  apply  it  to  particular  cases,  or  (b)  test  its  validity,  or  {c) 
discover  new  particular  facts.  As  illustrations  of  the  first 
type  take  the  classical  example :  All  men  are  mortal ;  Socrates 
was  a  man;  therefore  Socrates  was  mortal.  Or,  nouns  are 
name  words;  John  is  a  name;  therefore  the  word  John  is  a 
noun.     In  "parsing"  in  grammar  the  definitions  of  the  vari- 


298    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

ous  parts  of  speech  and  their  modifications  are  given  and  the 
pupil  measures  or  compares  the  given  words  with  the  defini- 
tions. Similarly  in  classifying  specimens  in  botany  the  pupil 
is  given  definitions  of  various  species  and  families  of  plants. 
He  then  takes  the  particular  specimen  and  studies  the  calyx, 
corolla,  stamens,  pistils,  petals,  stem,  roots,  etc.,  observes 
their  characteristics,  says:  "They  do  not  belong  to  the  crow- 
foot family,  but  do  correspond  to  the  definition  of  the  rose 
family."  He  has  in  effect  reasoned  thus:  "The  rose  family 
has  such  and  such  characteristics.  This  plant  has  these  char- 
acteristics. Therefore  it  belongs  to  the  rose  family."  The 
best  illustration  of  deduction  in  school  subjects  is  found  in 
the  ordinary  text-book  in  geometry.  A  theorem  is  stated 
which  is  assumed  to  be  correct.  For  example:  "The  sum  of 
the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  is  equal  to  two  right  angles." 
The  pupil  has  not  discovered  the  principle.  Some  one  else 
has,  and  the  pupil's  task  is  to  test  its  truth  or  falsity.  Only 
occasionally  is  a  new  fact  discovered  deductively.  Deduction 
may  be  formally  defined  as  follows:  Deduction  is  a  process 
of  thinking  in  which  the  learner  starts  with  lawSy  principles^ 
or  hypotheses  and  applies  them  to  individual  cases;  or  tests 
their  validity;  or  discovers  new  individual  facts  by  means  of 
them. 

The  following  are  illustrations  of  deductive  teaching.  The 
first  relates  to  a  well-known  principle  of  algebra.  The  book 
from  which  it  was  taken  (Olney's  Complete  Algebra)  starts  the 
discussion  with  a  statement  of  the  principle.  In  many  books 
the  principle  is  first  derived  inductively.  Most  texts  do  not 
attempt  to  test  or  prove  that  it  is  true.  The  given  book  proves 
it  and  then  gives  examples  in  which  the  quotients  are  to  be 
stated  without  actually  dividing.  Both  the  proof  and  the  ap- 
plications are  deductive  in  character. 

Proposition. — The  difference  between  any  two  quantities  is  a  divisor 
of  the  difference  between  the  same  powers  of  the  quantities.  Dem- 
onstration.— Let  X  and  y  be  any  two  quantities  and  n  any  positive 
integer.  First,  x  —  y  divides  x""  —  y"".  Second,  if  n  is  even,  x  +  y 
divides  x"^  —  y"".     Third,  if  «  is  odd,  x  -\-  y  divides  x"^  +  y^. 


INDUCTIVE  AND   DEDUCTIVE  THINKING         299 

First 
X  -  y)  x""  -  y""  {x""-^  +  ^°~- y  +  :y°~^ y"^  +  a;°-* y  +  etc. 


ric"  —  X" 


Taking  the  first  case,  we  proceed  in  form  with  the  division,  till 
enough  terms  to  determine  the  law  are  found.  We  find  that  each 
remainder  consists  of  two  terms,  the  second  of  which,  —  y"^,  is  the 
second  term  of  the  dividend  constantly  brought  down  unchanged;  and 
the  first  contains  x  with  an  exponent  decreasing  by  unity  in  each 
successive  remainder,  and  y  with  an  exponent  increasing  at  the  same 
rate  that  the  exponent  of  x  decreases.  At  this  rate  the  exponent  of  x 
in  the  nth.  remainder  becomes  O,  and  that  of  y,  n.  Hence  the  wth 
remainder  is  y°  —  y"^,  or  O;  and  the  division  is  exact.     Q.  E.  D. 

The  following  is  a  typical  deductive  statement  found  in  a 
high-school  text  in  physics  (Black  and  Davis,  Practical  Physics, 
p.  78).  Note  that  the  principle  is  stated  first  and  then  a 
demonstration  is  given.  At  the  close  of  the  chapter  a  num- 
ber of  problems  and  exercises  are  given,  applying  the  various 
principles  studied  and  demonstrated  in  the  chapter. 

Air  is  very  compressible.  In  one  respect  gases  are  very  different 
from  liquids,  namely,  in  compressibility.  This  striking  difference  can 
be  shown  in  the  following  experiment: 

When  a  brass  tube,  with  a  closely  fitting  steei  rod,  is  filled  with  air, 
the  steel  plunger  can  be  easily  pushed  down  by  hand,  and  when  the 
plunger  is  released,  it  springs  back  nearly  to  its  initial  position.  If  it 
does  not  come  quite  back  to  its  initial  position,  it  means  that  some  of 
the  air  has  leaked  out.  The  entrapped  air  acts  like  a  spring.  But 
when  the  tube  is  filled  with  water,  or  any  other  liquid,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  push  the  plunger  down,  to  any  perceptible  extent,  by 
hand,  and  when  the  end  of  the  plunger  is  struck  with  a  hammer,  the 
effect  is  as  if  the  entire  tube  were  a  solid  steel  column,  because  the 
liquid  is  so  nearly  incompressible. 


300    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

High-school  geometry  furnishes  the  best  possibilities  for  the 
use  of  the  deductive  method.  The  learner  starts  with  the 
theorem  and  is  asked  to  prove  the  truth  or  falsity  of  it.  If  he 
works  it  out  for  himself,  he  reasons  deductively.  If  he  mem- 
orizes the  printed  discussion,  he  follows  a  deductive  method, 
but  he  does  not  necessarily  reason.  The  fact  that  the  dis- 
cussions are  fully  written  out  in  most  text-books  on  geometry 
militates  against  securing  the  most  efficient  work  in  reasoning. 
The  plan  of  the  book  fosters  pure  verbal  memorizing.  If 
only  a  few  hints  were  given,  much  better  thinking  would  be 
stimulated.  The  "original  exercises"  are  usually  the  best 
part  of  the  book,  but  too  often  omitted. 

Although  deductive  methods  are  more  easily  apparent  in 
geometry  than  in  other  subjects,  yet  they  are  being  employed 
continually.  Whenever  definitions,  laws,  and  principles  are 
stated  and  then  tested,  or  when  applications  are  made  of  the 
laws  and  principles  the  deductive  method  is  used.  Grammar 
has  most  usually  been  taught  by  this  method.  Latin  and 
Greek  are  quite  universally  taught  deductively.  In  American 
schools  the  modern  foreign  languages  have  generally  been 
taught  by  the  translation  method,  which  is  deductive  in  its 
approach.  The  pupil  learns  his  definitions  and  rules,  and  then 
applies  them  to  the  particular  words.  Algebra  and  arithmetic 
have  been  taught  more  deductively  than  inductively,  but  even 
more  as  a  matter  of  memory  and  by  rule-of-thumb  methods. 
They  are  both  excellent  instruments  for  utilizing  reasoning 
processes,  but  when  rules  are  followed  blindly,  reasoning  is 
used  only  meagrely. 

It  is  very  important  that  pupils  learn  to  test  results 
which  they  reach  inductively,  or  which  are  furnished  them 
ready-made.  It  is  only  by  verification  that  the  learner  should 
come  to  a  feeling  of  certainty  and  security  in  his  own  inductive 
conclusions.  He  should  also  learn  to  weigh,  test,  and  verify 
statements  furnished  him  by  his  teachers  and  his  books. 
There  is  no  certainty  that  when  a  pupil  has  reproduced  cor- 
rectly a  demonstration  in  geometry  which  he  has  been  set  to 
learn,  that  he  has  really  gone  through  a  process  of  deduction. 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING 


301 


He  may  have  approached  it  deductively  and  learned  the  forms, 
but  real  deduction  means  reasoning,  in  which  the  individual 
derives  the  conclusions  for  himself.     To  follow  another's  de- 


PROPOSITION  XXI 


III.     Theorem.     If  two  parallel  lines  are  cut  by  a  transversal,  the 
alternate  interior  angles  are  equal. 


Let  M  R  and  N  P  represent  two  parallel  lines  cut  by  the  transversal 

AB. 
Case  I.     To  prove  that  the  alternate  interior  angles  4  and  3  are  equal. 
Suggestion  i.   Through  0,  the  middle  point  of  E  F,  draw  C  D  Ito  N  P. 

2.  What  relation  does  CD  sustain  to  M  R?     Why? 

3.  Compare  As  0  F  D  and  O  E  C.     Give  auth. 

4.  Then,  how  do  / 5  4  and  3  compare?    Why?     Par.  84. 

Case  II.     To  prove  that  the  alternate  interior  angles  6  and  5  are  equal. 
Suggestion  i.  /4+/_6   =  /_S_  +  [^     Why? 
2.  Compare  /  s  6  and  5. 
Therefore — 


ductive  discussion  is  not  to  reason  deductively;  it  is  not  nec- 
essarily reasoning  at  all. 

The  above  is  a  splendid  illustration  of  the  real  use  of  the 
deductive  method,  in  which  the  learner  is  required  to  do  the 
thinking  and  not  merely  echo  some  one  else  who  has  thought 


302    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

out  all  of  the  relations  and  conclusions.  Notice  especially 
how  no  conclusion  except  the  theorem  is  stated.  All  the  rest 
is  left  for  the  pupil  to  derive.  (Taken  from  Shutts,  Plane  and 
Solid  Geometry,  pp.  46-47.) 

Laboratory  and  Field  Work. — It  is  frequently  assumed  that 
all  science  teaching  by  the  laboratory  method  is  inductive  and 
efficient.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  frequently  neither  induc- 
tive nor  efficient.  When  pupils  are  given  a  laboratory  manual 
of  minute  instructions,  provided  with  every  piece  of  equip- 
ment, and  then  record  mechanically  what  they  do,  and  are 
not  questioned  concerning  reasons  and  relations,  they  are  apt 
to  do  very  little  thinking.  It  is  as  bad  as  the  old-time  text- 
book method  without  any  laboratory. 

In  European  schools  pupils  have  very  little  individual  lab- 
oratory manipulation  in  physics  or  chemistry.  The  teacher 
gives  demonstration  exercises,  and  questions  the  pupils  sharply 
concerning  the  experiments.  They  get  better  results  than  in 
our  schools,  where  pupils  are  turned  loose  in  the  laboratory 
and  follow  the  "cook-book  recipe"  method.  The  abolish- 
ment of  the  laboratory  is  not  here  advocated.  It  should  be 
emphasized,  however,  that  the  only  purpose  of  the  laboratory 
is  to  cause  pupils  to  really  think.  Laboratory  work  should 
be  largely  inductive  in  order  that  pupils  may  learn  to  be  dis- 
coverers, at  least  in  a  small  way,  but  many  laboratory  exer- 
cises should  be  given  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  laws 
or  principles,  testing  hypotheses  or  applying  what  has  already 
been  established  as  true. 

Neither  induction  nor  deduction  should  be  followed  exclu- 
sively in  any  subject.  The  foundations  should  always  be 
laid  inductively.  Induction  is  a  method  of  discovery,  of  in- 
vestigation; deduction  a  method  of  testing,  of  proof,  of  appli- 
cation. After  principles,  laws,  hypotheses,  conclusions  have 
been  derived  through  a  personal  examination  of  particulars 
they  should  be  carefully  tested  and  proven  either  valid  or 
incorrect.  It  is  a  mistake  to  teach  sciences  by  inductive 
methods  alone.  Induction  without  deduction  tends  to  lead 
learners  to  jump  to  conclusions.     They  develop  a  commenda- 


INDUCTIVE   AND   DEDUCTIVE   THINKING         303 

ble  habit  of  making  independent  observations,  but  the  obser- 
vations are  apt  to  be  loose  and  inaccurate.  When  deductive 
methods  only  are  employed,  the  learner  is  apt  to  become  ab- 
sorbed in  the  abstractions  of  logic,  too  much  inclined  to  reason 
out  conclusions  from  insufficient  data,  too  ready  to  rely  on 
authority.  The  Middle  Age  scholasticism  was  characterized 
by  the  excessive  use  of  deductive  methods  and  a  meagreness 
of  investigation. .  The  reasoning  was  correct  and  fine-spun, 
but  often  based  on  unsound  premises.  The  combined  use  of 
both  methods  characterizes  all  good  teaching  and  all  effective 
study.  In  advanced  classes  the  deductive  approach  often 
seems  to  characterize  the  most  of  the  work,  while  in  reality 
the  approach  is  also  inductive  because  the  students  have  for- 
merly gathered  so  many  individual  ideas  that  they  need  but 
to  form  or  perfect  their  generalizations  from  the  individual 
data.  This  is  true  in  such  subjects  as  economics,  institutional 
history,  and  psychology. 

It  is  necessary  that  we  accept,  at  least  tentatively,  many 
laws  and  principles  that  have  been  discovered  by  scientists 
and  others  throughout  the  ages.  It  would  be  impossible,  for 
lack  of  time  if  for  no  other  reason,  to  test  every  working  prin- 
ciple. Generally,  also,  the  discovery  of  the  law  has  required 
special  scientific  knowledge  or  equipment  which  we  do  not 
possess  and  therefore  we  could  not  test  it.  We  must  there- 
fore learn  to  evaluate  authorities,  so  that  when  it  is  impossible 
to  test  laws  we  may  be  reasonably  sure  that  we  are  following 
probably  correct  principles  and  rules.  Only  by  accepting  and 
applying  apparently  valid  knowledge  vouched  for  by  special- 
ists are  we  able  to  make  any  progress.  We  all  have  to  rely 
upon  specialists.  Few  can  test  scientifically  the  principles  of 
law,  medicine,  engineering,  plumbing,  accounting,  or  astron- 
omy. In  attempting  to  cause  pupils  to  think  critically  we 
sometimes  try  to  make  pupils  discover  or  prove  every  fact 
which  they  consider.  That  is  manifestly  impossible.  They 
must  learn  to  select  and  appropriate  from  the  world's  great 
storehouses  of  well-established  facts.  Of  course,  in  learning 
to  rely  upon  authorities  they  must  be  sufficiently  critical  not 


304    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

to  accept  facts  blindly  simply  because  of    the  rank  of   the 
authorities. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Think  of  some  generalization  derived  independently  by  children.  2. 
Recall  some  generalizations  derived  independently  by  yourself  in  connec- 
tion with  (a)  some  school  subject,  (b)  some  practical  affairs  of  life,  3, 
Suppose  a  pupil  performs  an  experiment  and  independently  comes  to  a 
wrong  conclusion.  Is  the  time  and  effort  wasted?  4,  What  subjects  lend 
themselves  to  the  inductive  method  of  learning?  5,  Under  what  circum- 
stances should  definitions  in  school  subjects  be  memorized  ?  6,  Arrange  a 
lesson  in  your  major  subject  to  be  taught  by  the  inductive  method.  7, 
Suggest  a  list  of  questions  designed  to  help  pupils  to  discover  the  function 
of  an  adjective,  8,  Would  you  try  to  teach  history  inductively  ?  9.  Were 
you  taught  arithmetic  inductively  or  deductively?  Which  method  do  you 
consider  preferable?  10,  If  a  subject  is  not  taught  inductively,  is  it  there- 
fore taught  deductively?  11,  Should  rules  for  spelling  be  taught  induc- 
tively, deductively,  or  not  at  all?  12.  Which  phase  of  deduction,  dis- 
covery, proof,  or  application,  is  most  frequently  employed  by  pupils?  By 
persons  in  everyday  life?  13,  Under  what  circumstances  is  deduction 
used  by  pupils  in  laboratory  exercises?     Legitimate? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  chaps.  XIX,  XX. 

2.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXIV. 

3.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  VIII. 

4.  Colvin,  Introduction  to  High  School  Teaching,  chap.  XIII. 

5.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chap.  XXI. 

6.  McMurry,  Method  of  the  Recitation.     Entire  book. 

7.  Strayer,  A  Brief  Course  in  the  Teaching  Process,  chaps.  V,  VI. 

8.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  X. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  DIRECTION  OF  BEHAVIOR 

The  Dynamic  Side  of  Life. — Deeds,  not  ideas  or  words, 
count.  What  determines  one's  course  of  action  at  any  given 
moment?  Professor  Royce  speaks  of  will  as  the  direction  of 
conduct.  We  have  noted  that  sensations  and  ideas  tend  to 
develop  into  action.  Which  response  will  follow?  Why  do 
we  select  or  choose  one  mode  of  behavior  rather  than  another  ? 
It  is  just  this  selecting,  choosing,  following  that  constitutes 
what  is  known  as  will,  or  volition. 

Ordinarily  will  Is  thought  of  as  something  which  compels  us 
to  follow  some  line  of  action  rather  than  another.  It  Is  said, 
for  example:  "He  kept  up  by  sheer  force  of  his  strong  will," 
"His  Iron  will  carried  him  onward,"  "His  will  weakened,"  or 
"He  failed  because  he  lacked  will."  One  person  is  said  to 
have  a  firm  will  and  another  one  that  is  changeable.  Will  is 
thus  regarded  as  a  sort  of  psychological  ghost  that  continu- 
ally pursues  us,  compelling  or  prohibiting  whatever  we  do. 
Each  one  is  supposed  to  be  born  with  a  will  of  a  given  type 
which  remains  with  him  through  life.  This  is  not  true,  how- 
ever, because  the  will  develops  with  experience.  It  is  con- 
nected with  intellectual  and  emotional  states,  and  its  growth 
is  largely  determined  by  them. 

Royce  said  that  our  minds  are  full  of  "passing  impulses,  of 
tendencies  to  action,  of  passions,  and  of  concerns  for  what  we 
take  to  be  our  welfare.  All  these  Impulses  and  concerns  get 
woven,  by  the  laws  of  habit.  Into  systems  of  ruling  motives 
which  express  themselves  without  In  our  regular  fashions  of 
conduct.  The  whole  of  our  Inner  life,  viewed  In  this  aspect, 
appears  as  the  purposive  side  of  our  consciousness,  or  as  the  will 
in  the  wider  sensed     (Royce,  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  367.) 

305 


3o6    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Development  of  Will  in  the  Child. — Instead  of  being  a  fixed 
quantity,  the  will  of  the  child  grows  through  experience.  At 
the  outset  the  child  possesses  through  heredity  a  stock  of 
motor  impulses.  Many  of  them  are  random,  while  others  are 
quite  definite.  Then  through  being  carried  about,  being  fed, 
washed,  and  dressed,  thousands  of  positions  are  assumed. 
Thus  many  movements,  accidental  so  far  as  the  child  is  con- 
cerned, are  experienced.  Each  one  of  these  is  of  definite 
value  in  trying  a  new  movement,  as  they  can  be  recombined 
in  countless  ways.  Trial  and  error  and  trial  and  success  are 
the  usual  ways  of  developing  definite  voluntary  actions. 

In  order  to  understand  fully  developed  volitional  acts  let 
us  examine  the  genesis  of  a  voluntary  act;  for  example,  throw- 
ing at  a  mark.  We  throw  at  the  mark  and  do  not  succeed. 
But  in  doing  so  we  have  gained  certain  experiences — muscu- 
lar, auditory,  and  others.  Each  of  these  experiences  leaves  a 
memory.  It  may  be  a  visual  memory  of  the  appearance  of 
the  mark  and  of  the  distance,  or  it  may  be  the  kinesthetic 
memory  of  the  position  of  the  arm  when  it  was  raised,  as  the 
missile  was  hurled,  of  the  position  of  the  hand  and  the  fingers 
as  the  missile  was  released.  All  of  these  memories  are  taken 
account  of  in  gauging  the  next  trial.  We  know,  for  example, 
how  wide  of  the  mark  we  came  and  how  much  muscular  ten- 
sion was  exerted,  at  what  height  the  object  was  released. 
These  memories  we  compare  with  our  ideas  of  the  amount  of 
force  that  ought  to  be  exerted,  the  modified  positions  to  be 
taken  by  the  arm  and  hand,  and  other  conditions  which  we 
think  ought  to  bring  about  the  desired  end.  We  try  again 
and  possibly  err  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  memories  of 
this  experience  are  now  compared  with  the  former  ones  and 
also  with  the  imagined  necessary  ones,  and  we  repeat  the  trial, 
attempting  to  correct  all  the  former  errors.  If  perchance  we 
have  accidentally  hit  the  mark  the  first  time,  the  case  is  fun- 
damentally the  same.  In  either  case  we  try  to  remember  the 
sensations  and  perceptions  gained  under  these  conditions  and 
then  endeavor  to  repeat  them.  It  takes  many  trials  before 
we  can  perform  the  action  purposively,  because  our  memories 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  307 

of  the  movement  are  so  fleeting  and  imperfect,  and  our  ideas 
of  what  is  necessary  are  so  indefinite.  At  first  we  cannot 
know  just  what  to  do,  because  we  can  have  no  accurate  idea 
of  the  end  until  we  have  actually  accomplished  the  end. 

From  this  analysis  we  see  that  in  order  to  perform  an  act 
voluntarily  we  must  have  (a)  an  idea  (not  necessarily  a  con- 
scious idea)  of  the  end  to  be  accomplished,  and  (b)  a  stock  of 
memories  of  former  experiences  from  which  a  suitable  selec- 
tion can  be  used  in  guiding  action  toward  the  ideal  end.  This 
idea  of  the  end  to  be  accomplished  includes  not  only  an  idea 
of  what  is  to  be  done,  but  also  the  idea  of  how  to  do  it.  On 
first  consideration  this  may  seem  a  startling  statement.  The 
inquiry  will  at  once  be  raised  as  to  how  we  can  ever  perform 
an  act  voluntarily  if  we  must  first  know  definitely  how  to 
accomplish  the  act  and  if  that  knowledge  can  only  be  gained 
by  actual  performance  of  it.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem, 
however,  no  act  can  be  performed  voluntarily  until  it  has  been 
first  performed  non-voluntarily.  This  does  not  mean  that  as 
a  whole  it  must  have  been  performed  non-voluntarily,  but 
that  the  elements  which  enter  into  it  must  have  been  per- 
formed non-voluntarily.  In  the  case  of  reaching  for  a  book, 
for  example,  we  do  it  at  once  without  difficulty,  although  we 
have  never  reached  for  the  identical  book  or  in  that  particular 
place.  But  we  have  moved  the  arm  and  the  hand  in  countless 
directions  previously,  and  each  of  these  reachings  has  been 
recorded  in  memory.  When  we  reach  for  a  particular  book 
in  a  particular  place  we  select  from  all  the  past  experiences 
certain  elements  and  combine  those  elements  into  a  new 
whole  and  perform  the  new  action  with  ease. 

James  writes  that  "no  creature  not  endowed  with  divina- 
tory  power  can  perform  an  act  voluntarily  for  the  first  time." 
But  as  we  are  not  endowed  with  prophetic  power  we  must 
wait  for  the  movements  to  be  performed  involuntarily  before 
we  can  frame  ideas  of  what  they  are.  "We  learn  all  our  pos- 
sibilities by  the  way  of  experience.  When  a  particular  move- 
ment, having  once  occurred  in  a  random,  reflex,  or  involun- 
tary way,  has  left  an  image  of  itself  in  the  memory,  then  the 


3o8    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

movement  can  be  desired  again,  proposed  as  an  end,  and  de- 
liberately willed.  But  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  it  could  be 
willed  before.  A  supply  of  ideas  of  the  various  movements  that 
are  possible  left  in  the  memory  by  experiences  of  their  involuntary 
performance  is  thus  the  first  prerequisite  of  the  voluntary  life.'* 
(James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  II,  pp.  487,  488.) 

Professor  Royce  voices  the  same  idea  in  the  following  sen- 
tences : 

Strange  as  the  statement  may  seem,  we  can  never  consciously  and 
directly  will  any  really  novel  course  of  action.  We  can  directly  will  an 
act  only  when  we  have  before  done  that  act,  and  have  so  experienced  the 
nature  of  it.  The  will  is  as  dependent  as  the  intellect  upon  our  past 
experience.  One  can  indeed  will  an  act  which  is  sure  to  involve,  in  a 
given  environment,  absolutely  novel  consequences;  but  the  act  itself, 
so  far  as  one  wills  it,  is  a  familiar  act.  Thus  a  suicide  can  will  an  act 
which  results  in  his  own  death,  and  so  far  he  seems  to  be  willing  some- 
thing which  wholly  transcends  his  past  experience.  But,  as  a  fact, 
the  act  itself  which  he  makes  the  direct  object  of  his  will  (e.  g.,  point- 
ing a  pistol  and  pulling  a  trigger,  or  swallowing  a  dose)  is  itself  an  act 
with  which  he  is  long  since  decidedly  famiHar.     {Op.  cit.,  p.  369,) 

Relation  of  Habit  and  Will. — It  is  thus  recognized  that  the 
basis  of  will  is  habit.  The  more  that  conduct  becomes  woven 
into  organized  systems  the  greater  the  ease  and  control  of  the 
behavior.  What  is  accomplished  easily  and  with  control  is 
done  voluntarily.  Ordinarily  we  think  of  habit  as  the  out- 
come of  will,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  few  habits  are  initiated 
intentionally — voluntarily.  The  actions  are  launched  through 
ideomotor  action  determined  by  chance  environment,  con- 
tinued through  imitation,  and  finally  become  habits.  These 
determine  our  behavior. 

What  Is  a  Strong  Will? — According  to  the  popular  notion 
that  person  has  a  strong  will  who  is  full  of  strong,  uncontrolled 
impulses,  who  exhibits  great  vigor  in  doing  things  in  the  face 
of  opposition,  or  who  is  able  to  resist  great  temptations.  Our 
examination  of  the  development  of  voluntary  movements  and 
the  relation  between  volition  and  habit  will  not  bear  out  the 
popular  notion.     The  subject  is  so  difficult,  however,  that  a 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  309 

little  closer  examination  is  necessary  for  full  understanding. 
A  voluntary  action  is  one  that  is  under  control.  It  is  one 
which  has  been  brought  under  control  by  the  individual  or  it 
may  be  in  part  due  to  hereditary  tendencies.  Yet  we  say  of 
the  man  who  experienced  a  great  temptation  to  go  into  the 
saloon,  who  had  a  tremendous  struggle  with  himself  against 
going,  but  who  finally  mastered  his  inclination,  that  he  had  a 
strong  will.  Another  man  goes  by  the  saloon  door  with  no 
temptation,  no  inclination  to  go  in,  and  without  any  struggle. 
We  give  him  no  credit  for  strength  of  will.  We  demand  that 
there  be  struggle  in  order  to  ascribe  anything  to  strength  of 
will.  The  man  who  goes  about  with  no  temptation  to  pick 
people's  pockets,  no  craving  for  murder,  no  longing  to  set  a 
match  under  his  neighbor's  house,  no  struggle  against  evil,  is 
not  thought  of  as  strong-willed.  But  let  a  man  struggle  with 
debasing  impulses,  come  out  victorious,  and  we  cite  him  as  a 
man  of  will.  Now,  this  is  incorrect.  We  may  laud  the  man 
who  has  struggled  and  won  as  a  means  of  encouragement  to 
future  righteousness,  but  it  is  wrong  to  regard  him  as  an  ex- 
emplar of  sturdy  will.  A  strong  will  in  the  psychological 
sense  means  a  trained  will ;  it  means  a  high  degree  of  control ; 
while  the  very  fact  that  a  struggle  with  temptation  has  ensued 
indicates  difficulty  of  control,  or  lack  of  will.  The  temptation 
and  the  struggle  are  indications  of  disease  of  will  or  lack  of 
perfect  volitional  development.  The  power  to  go  by  the 
saloon,  to  keep  one's  hands  out  of  people's  pockets,  to  inhibit 
thoughts  of  revenge  and  injury  to  others  is  a  token  of  a  high 
degree  of  will-training.  These  virtues  do  not  come  merely 
through  individual  training,  but  they  indicate  hereditary  ten- 
dencies accumulated  through  generations  of  training  in  tem- 
perate living,  abstinence  from  excesses,  self-renunciation,  and 
altruism.  Hence,  the  person  with  desirable  hereditary  en- 
dowment and  properly  developed  individual  habits  does  not 
feel  temptation  toward  intemperate  sense  gratification,  tak- 
ing what  does  not  belong  to  him,  or  destruction  of  another's 
property. 

Most  people  would  grant  that  I  am  voluntarily  writing  these 


3IO        EVERYDAY-  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

words,  but  how  many  there  are  who  would  not  admit  that 
such  action  exhibits  considerable  will-power.  Should  I  walk 
across  the  floor  or  open  my  mouth  and  speak  several  sentences 
correctly,  few  would  deny  that  it  was  voluntarily  done,  but 
how  many  would  fail  to  acknowledge  that  it  was  an  exhibition 
of  strength  of  will.  Because  of  the  looseness  of  popular  psy- 
chological analysis  and  the  inaccuracies  in  the  use  of  language, 
the  word  willingly  has  not  been  generally  thought  to  express 
an  attitude  of  will.  But  in  reality  one  who  is  willing  in  doing 
a  thing  wills  to  do  it.  Should  I  be  stricken  with  palsy  and 
then  tremblingly  write  a  page,  or  stammer  out  a  few  incoherent 
sentences,  or  walk  with  tottering  steps  across  the  floor,  but 
exhibit  struggle  and  persistence,  the  same  ones  who  conceded 
nothing  to  my  will  before  would  now  marvel  at  my  strength 
of  will.  As  I  regard  the  case,  the  palsied  nerves,  the  exhaust- 
ing struggle,  and  the  indifferent  execution  are  all  signs  of  dis- 
eased and  therefore  weak  will.  The  perfect  control  without 
struggle  and  accurate  execution  are  evidences  of  strength  of 
will  in  that  direction.  Whatever  is  voluntarily  done  and  with 
ease  and  accuracy  is  a  manifestation  of  a  strong  will. 

Individual  Variations  in  Volition. — It  will  be  noted  readily 
that  there  are  a  great  many  varieties  of  volitional  response 
manifested  by  different  individuals.  There  is  the  person  who 
is  cool,  calm,  calculating,  and  deliberate  in  everything  he 
does;  as  his  opposite  there  is  the  one  who  always  acts  on  mo- 
mentary impulses,  never  foreseeing  completely  the  results  of 
his  action.  Among  the  former  type,  represented  admirably 
by  Gladstone,  are  the  great  constructive  statesmen;  in  the 
latter  class  we  find  many  great  reformers  and  soldiers — such 
men  as  Luther  and  Napoleon  (the  world-shaking  type,  as 
James  denominates  them).  Then  there  is  the" vacillating  type, 
thoroughly  deHberating  and  weighing,  but  never  arriving  at  a 
decision.  Such  a  one  is  always  "going  to  do"  something, 
but  never  getting  started.  Extremes  of  this  type,  of  course, 
are  pathological. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  same  person  may  have 
strength  of  will  in  one  direction  and  not  in  another.     A  high- 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  311 

wayman  may  give  an  exhibition  of  the  most  perfect  control 
in  a  railway  hold-up,  but  he  may  be  the  most  weak-kneed 
coward  imaginable  in  facing  a  drawing-room  full  of  company, 
in  making  a  speech,  or  standing  firm  in  a  moral  issue.  Stam- 
mering is  a  disease  of  the  will,  and  who  has  not  seen  otherwise 
strong  men  who  have  been  stammerers?  The  stammering 
was  indicative  of  weakness  in  a  single  direction.  One  may 
have  perfect  physical  control  but  be  lacking  in  intellectual 
control,  i.  e.,  he  may  be  subject  to  mind  wandering,  lacking 
in  attention,  in  control  of  memory,  imagination,  or  thinking. 
One  may  have  good  control  of  predominantly  intellectual 
processes,  but  be  without  proper  emotional  balance.  He  may 
be  a  slave  to  some  great  absorbing  passions  or  he  may  be  sub- 
ject to  explosions  of  temper.  Similarly  there  are  those  who 
have  perfect  control  of  intellectual  and  emotional  processes 
but  who  are  sadly  lacking  in  moral  control.  It  is  important 
in  education  to  recognize  these  variations  that  may  appear  in 
the  same  individual.  If  the  moral  will  is  weak,  for  example, 
it  is  frequently  impossible  to  develop  it  through  purely  intel- 
lectual activities.  Logical  training  will  not  necessarily  pro- 
duce honesty. 

Will  Means  Accumulated  Tendencies. — I  have  tried 
throughout  this  work  to  indicate  that  every  experience  leaves 
its  ineffaceable  trace  upon  the  nervous  system  and,  conse- 
quently, upon  the  mind.  As  these  effects  of  experience  ac- 
cumulate in  certain  directions,  impulses  and  tendencies 
toward  action  are  produced  in  those  directions.  In  this  way 
the  mind  and  body  develop  particular  attitudes  and  processes. 
When  we  analyze  the  meaning  of  character  we  find  that  it 
implies  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  accumulated  tenden- 
cies toward  action  in  particular  directions.  A  man  who  has 
habitually  acted  in  a  righteous  direction  has  built  up  tenden- 
cies toward  righteousness.  On  the  other  hand,  one  who  has 
sown  a  generous  supply  of  wild  oats  in  youth  is  sure  to  reap 
in  old. age  an  abundant  harvest  of  viciousness.  It  could  not 
be  otherwise.  We  are  enjoined  in  the  Scriptures  that  "what- 
soever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."     It  may  seem 


312    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

somewhat  materialistic  to  call  these  results  of  experience  char- 
acter, but  from  a  scientific  analysis  of  the  effect  of  experience 
upon  the  nervous  system  and  upon  the  mind,  we  cannot  help 
but  conclude  that  character  is  a  result  of  all  the  experiences 
which  have  come  to  us.  It  is  somewhat  annoying  to  the  one 
who  has  led  an  idle,  dissolute  life  to  contemplate  that  the 
record  of  all  his  life  is  constantly  in  evidence,  impelling  him  in 
the  direction  in  which  he  has  started,  but  the  result  is  unavoid- 
able. On  the  other  hand,  one  may  derive  a  large  measure  of 
comfort  and  satisfaction  from  a  knowledge  of  the  scientific 
fact  that  lifelong  experience  in  the  direction  of  right  will  pro- 
duce a  fund  of  capital  upon  which  we  are  continually  to  draw. 
A  man  who  has  thus  lived  properly  all  his  life  will  be  able  to 
stand  firm  easily  when  the  storm  of  temptation  rages  around 
him. 

Transfer  of  Effects. — The  discussion  of  formal  discipline  has 
shown  that  power  gained  in  one  direction  does  not  give  power 
in  any  other  direction  wholly  unrelated.  This  is  very  true  in 
connection  with  will-training  because  it  has  been  so  generally 
assumed  that  will-power  can  be  applied  to  all  situations  equally 
well.  The  one  who  gains  control  in  football  has  not  thereby 
gained  control  in  public  speaking.  Neither  has  the  one  who 
has  acquired  poise  and  perfect  control  of  body,  train  of 
thoughts,  and  of  voice  thereby  gained  control  in  football. 
Each  type  of  control  must  be  gained  by  experience  in  doing 
that  type  of  thing.  Of  course  in  so  far  as  one  experience  may 
become  an  element  in  another  experience  it  reinforces  the 
other. 

Directions  of  Control. — ^Among  the  manifold  directions  of 
controlled  actions  only  a  few  may  be  discussed,  and  these 
merely  in  a  suggestive  rather  than  an  exhaustive  manner. 
First  and  fundamentally,  every  child  must  acquire  muscular 
control  of  a  great  variety  of  actions,  and  in  some  cases  of  ex- 
ceeding complexity.  What  are  creeping,  walking,  standing, 
running,  feeding  oneself,  going  through  the  process  of  dress- 
ing, but  cases  of  voluntary  control  ?  True,  they  come  to  seem 
automatic,  but  they  are  directly  subject  to  modification  and 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  313 

control  and,  therefore,  volitional.  To  stand  well,  possess  an 
erect  carriage,  walk  gracefully,  or  to  manage  one's  hands  and 
feet  without  awkwardness,  are  no  mean  accomplishments. 
They  often  secure  for  one  an  entree  to  the  best  society  and 
even  add  to  one's  monthly  salary.  To  give  assurance  of 
possessing  these  qualities  is  a  prime  indorsement  to  a  candi- 
date for  many  positions.  They  must  be  learned,  too,  con- 
trary to  current  opinion.  They  are  a  badge  of  good  society, 
and  indicate  that  the  possessor  of  these  habits  has  been  under 
approved  tutors,  unconsciously^  observed  it  may  be  but  none 
the  less  important.  To  manage  one's  voice  so  as  to  utter 
words  distinctly,  without  stammering  or  hesitation,  to  modu- 
late the  voice  properly  in  talking  and  singing,  to  be  able  to 
marshal  apt  words  readily,  to  have  the  power  of  speaking  in 
different  languages,  all  these  are  excellent  cases  of  a  high 
degree  of  control.  Who  will  say  that  they  are  not  voluntary  ? 
Still  there  is  no  great  degree  of  control  until  they  are  largely 
habitual.  These  are  all  worthy  directions  of  will-training. 
Proficiency  in  any  of  the  several  directions  indicates  educa- 
tion of  the  highest  importance,  and  gained  only  through  much 
practice.  Not  only  are  the  foregoing  examples  of  muscular 
co-ordination  and  control,  but  they  also  illustrate  controlled, 
highly  complex  psychical  activities.  Such  activities  as  are 
manifested  in  drawing,  painting,  sculpture,  watchmaking,  the 
fine  touch  and  execution  in  surgery,  or  playing  the  piano  or 
violin,  are  all  splendid  illustrations  of  a  high  degree  of  co- 
ordination and  control. 

It  is  highly  important  that  children  receive  thorough  mus- 
cular training.  This  training  in  voluntary  motor  ability 
should  be  begun  in  infancy.  The  child  must  be  allowed  to 
move  about  freely.  We  have  by  no  means  reached  the  acme 
of  perfection  in  the  matter  of  suitable  clothing  for  babies. 
At  the  outset  we  put  them  in  dresses  long  enough  to  suit  a 
nineteenth-century  ballroom  belle.  Instead  of  being  able  to 
kick  about  vigorously,  they  are  hampered  in  their  move- 
ments by  the  unhygienic  clothing.  When  the  child  becomes 
old  enough  to  creep,  he  is  often  prevented  by  the  mother,  who 


314         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEA'CHERS 

fears  he  will  soil  a  pretty  dress.  He  is  thus  deprived  of  lung 
development,  chest  expansion,  control  of  hands,  arms,  and 
feet,  and,  in  fact,  the  entire  body  is  deprived  of  normal  devel- 
opment. One  child  studied,  who  had  been  deprived  of  the 
pleasure  and  profit  of  creeping,  was  put  into  ''jumper  over- 
alls" and  allowed  to  creep.  He  gained  two  inches  in  chest 
expansion  in  eleven  days !  Besides  the  improvements  in 
vital  capacity  and  increased  chest  measurement,  the  child 
who  creeps  gains  wonderfully  in  motor  control.  In  his  pere- 
grinations he  reaches  for  things,  closes  his  chubby  fists  upon 
them,  pulls  himself  toward  things,  making  numberless  daily 
motor  adjustments  requiring  the  fine  calculation  of  conditions 
and  the  co-ordination  of  muscular  effort.  Again  when  the 
child  loses  his  provinciality  and  becomes  a  pedestrian,  fashion 
steps  in  to  forbid  his  wearing  clothes  in  which  he  may  sample 
sand-piles  and  mud  pies,  in  which  he  may  climb  fences  and 
trees,  turn  somersaults,  or  roll  in  the  grass.  When  shall  we 
learn  that  the  child  must  have  freedom  in  order  to  develop 
properly  physically,  mentally,  and  morally  ? 

The  games  and  plays  of  childhood  not  only  develop  mus- 
cular control — the  elemental  type  of  will — but  through  them 
the  child  also  learns  to  direct  thoughts  to  definite  ends  and 
to  control  his  feelings,  both  through  subordination  and  in 
proper  assertion.  Plays  and  games  have  not  been  sufficiently 
utilized  as  educative  means.  Their  value  has  been  demon- 
strated in  kindergartens  and  in  schools  for  the  feeble-minded, 
and  we  should  take  a  hint  for  the  education  of  normal  chil- 
dren. I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  every  teacher  in  our 
public  schools  will  be  required  to  be  on  the  playground  during 
certain  specific  times  as  a  director  of  the  play  activities  of 
the  children. 

Intellectual  Control. — Although  the  foregoing  activities  in- 
volve controlled  psychical  processes,  there  are  still  higher 
mental  activities  which  are  not  so  closely  related  to  muscular 
actions.  What  one  thinks  about  when  not  engaged  in  set 
routine  duties  seems  at  first  sight  to  be  accidental  and  uncon- 
trolled, but  an  examination  will  reveal  that  our  thoughts  lie 


THE   DIRECTION   OF  BEHAVIOR  315 

along  certain  quite  well-defined  paths.  We  are  constantly 
thinking  about  our  line  of  work  or  pleasure,  and,  though  tem- 
porary deviations  are  made  because  of  chance  suggestions,  we 
continually  revert  to  the  habitual  line  of  thought.  It  Is  pre- 
cisely because  the  ideas  are  habitual  that  they  are  Intruded 
before  us.  If  we  conscientiously  set  ourselves  to  reflecting 
upon  a  given  topic,  the  degree  of  habituation  in  that  direction 
determines  the  degree  of  readiness  with  which  we  stick  to  the 
purpose.  In  other  words,  the  more  we  know  In  a  given  line, 
the  more  we  have  thought  about  it,  the  greater  the  degree  of 
thought-control  we  can  manifest  In  that  line.  If  I  am  able 
to  secure  willing  attention  from  my  class,  it  is  because  the 
ideas  which  I  am  trying  to  get  before  them  are  so  closely 
related  to  what  they  already  know.  If  asked  why  they  paid 
such  close  attention  they  would  say  because  they  were  Inter- 
ested. This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the  road  Is  a 
familiar  one,  that  their  apperception  enables  them  to  under- 
stand and  follow  without  apparent  effort  what  is  discussed. 
Attention,  even  the  most  consciously  voluntary,  depends  upon 
points  of  relation  between  the  thing  attended  to  and  the  ex- 
perience of  the  learner.  No  one  can  voluntarily  attend  for 
any  length  of  time  to  a  mere  spot  on  the  wall.  It  is  meaning- 
less and  without  Interest.  As  soon  as  the  mind  finds  no  well- 
worn  tracks  to  follow,  interest  dies  out,  attention  wavers,  and 
control  of  thoughts  Is  lost.  The  highest  degree  of  volition  is 
evidenced  by  long-continued  application  to  a  single  purpose. 
The  development  of  a  great  Industry  In  pursuance  of  chosen 
ideals,  the  unremitting  toil  necessitated  In  writing  books  or 
In  patiently  conducting  experimental  researches,  the  persis- 
tence often  manifested  In  acquiring  a  college  education  unaid- 
ed and  In  the  face  of  obstacles,  each  exemplifies  a  superlative 
exhibition  of  protracted  volitional  control.  The  momen- 
tary control  of  anger  under  provocation,  individual  acts  of 
bravery  or  self-denial,  or  the  careful  attention  to  a  single 
lesson  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  thoroughly  established, 
consistent  conduct,  regulated  In  a  thousand  ways  and  all 
promoting  a  single  end.     The  former  actions  represent  merely 


3i6        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR   TEACHERS 

temporary  Impulse,  while  the  last-named  represents  integrity 
and  fixity  of  high  moral  character. 

Some  people  frequently  notice  that  they  do  not  seem  to 
keep  their  attention  easily  upon  a  given  train  of  thought. 
They  are  subject  to  mind-wandering.  They  should  be  assured 
that  this  is  largely  because  they  have  never  developed  habits 
of  reflecting  long  and  continuously  about  anything.  The 
habit  of  looking  at  all  sides  of  a  subject  can  be  developed  by 
persistent  practice.  Frequently  the  mind  wanders  because 
no  fund  of  knowledge  has  been  acquired  along  the  line  of  pur- 
suit. Furthermore,  the  most  willing  attention,  i.  e.,  the  most 
voluntary  attention,  is  a  direct  outgrowth  of  interest.  Genu- 
ine interest  can  only  be  developed  through  previous  knowledge. 

A  characteristic  of  children  is  that  they  live  in  the  present 
and  for  the  present.  Ask  a  child  which  he  would  prefer,  a 
stick  of  candy  to-day  or  ten  sticks  to-morrow,  and  he  will 
invariably  choose  the  one  to-day.  Likewise  the  savage  Is 
largely  unmindful  of  the  future.  He  provides  for  the  present 
meal  and  then  sleeps  until  hunger  sends  him  on  the  chase  to 
provide  another.  Civilization  teaches  men  to  deal  In  futures, 
to  provide  for  the  morrow,  the  rainy  day,  to  provide  a  pro- 
tracted course  of  education  for  the  child  as  a  preparation  for 
the  future.  To  teach  the  child  to  build  for  the  future,  to 
practise  virtues  and  inhibit  vices  In  order  to  eventually  ac- 
quire Ideal  habits  and  states,  and  to  Insure  the  highest  pru- 
dential control,  is  true  pedagogy.  The  world's  great  thinkers 
have  all  been  men  who  have  been  able  to  give  sustained,  un- 
divided, and  continuous  thought  to  whatever  occupied  their 
attention. 

Emotional  Control. — To  develop  control  of  the  feelings  and 
emotions  Is  an  Important  direction  of  will-culture.  When  we 
consider  that  feelings  and  emotions  are  the  great  determining 
forces  In  active  life,  and  that  no  progress  was  ever  made  that 
did  not  have  back  of  It  a  great  Interest,  the  importance  of  the 
question  Is  impressed  upon  us.  Our  attitude  toward  life  and 
its  duties  determines  what  our  active  relations  will  be.  Are 
we  happy,  cheerful,  full  of  sympathy  and  kindly  fellow  feel- 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  317 

ing;  or  are  we  sorrowful,  depressed,  full  of  anger,  jealousy,  or 
resentment?  The  answer  indicates  the  direction  which  our 
actions  will  take.  Hence  we  see  the  importance  in  a  child's 
education  of  teaching  control  of  the  emotions.  In  the  early- 
life  of  the  infant,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  through  child- 
hood, the  feelings  are  more  dominant  than  the  intellect.  The 
majority  of  all  free  activities  of  the  lower  animals  and  of  chil- 
dren are  impelled  by  feeling.  Hunger  and  its  satisfaction, 
the  use  of  the  muscles  in  free  play,  and  satisfaction  of  curi- 
osity are  pre-eminently  matters  of  feeling. 

Practically  all  the  early  manifested  instincts  are  emotional. 
Among  these  are  fear,  anger,  jealousy,  shyness,  sociability, 
affection,  and  curiosity.  The  whole  natural  psychical  pro- 
vision for  self-preservation  is  largely  a  matter  of  instinctive 
personal  feeling.  Rational  intellectual  processes  scarcely 
enter  into  primitive  modes  of  self-preservation.  The  newly 
hatched  partridge  is  terrorized  by  strange  objects,  it  knows 
not  why;  the  kitten  spits  at  a  dog  simply  because  it  possesses 
an  antipathy  against  it,  not  because  it  has  individually  con- 
cluded that  such  a  course  is  best. 

The  child  must  acquire  control  of  the  various  emotions  to 
the  end  that  they  may  become  his  ally  instead  of  his  enemy. 
In  the  earliest  days  control  of  such  low  feelings  as  hunger 
through  the  habits  of  regular  eating  are  installed.  The  regu- 
lation of  this  feeling  is  of  lifelong  importance  to  every  indi- 
vidual. Undoubtedly  lack  of  control  caused  by  irregular 
hours  of  eating,  gormandizing  in  response  to  sense-feelings 
and  improper  food,  have  led  in  later  life  to  intemperance  in 
many  other  forms.  Intemperance  in  eating,  drinking,  smok- 
ing, drug-using,  etc.,  usually  result  from  pampered,  unregu- 
lated appetites. 

The  impulse  to  anger  is  early  evinced.  While  contending 
for  the  high  moral  value  of  trained,  intelligent  anger,  as  evi- 
denced by  voting  against  chicanery  and  evil,  yet  we  should 
teach  that  childish  passion  must  be  curbed.  The  infant 
straightens  out,  becomes  tense,  clutches  its  fists,  screams,  and 
abandons  itself  wholly  to  the  feelings,  partly  because  of  satis- 


3i8    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

faction,  partly  because  of  anger  or  fear.  Not  only  are  no 
habits  of  self-control  thus  initiated,  but  positive  habits  of 
giving  way  to  anger  are  developed.  The  man  who  gives  way 
to  anger,  who  becomes  dominated  by  animal  manifestations, 
is  always  at  a  disadvantage  with  an  adversary  who  keeps 
his  head,  who  uses  anger  only  to  stimulate  righteous  action. 
Two  general  conditions  must  be  observed  in  developing  con- 
trol of  anger:  first,  the  child  must  be  removed  as  far  as  possi- 
ble from  irritating  causes;  second,  correlatively,  he  must  be 
kept  as  good-tempered  as  possible.  One  attempt  at  forming 
habits  of  good  nature  is  worth  ten  efforts  at  reforming  habits 
of  ill  nature.  Good  health,  proper  hygiene,  and  sunny-tem- 
pered parents,  teachers,  and  companions  go  far  toward  insur- 
ing even-tempered  children ;  while  a  child  who  is  forced  to  live 
with  crotchety,  moody,  and  cranky  parents  and  associates 
easily  becomes  inoculated  with  touchiness,  irritability,  and 
flightiness. 

Because  of  the  effect  of  assuming  the  outward  expression 
of  emotions  in  producing  or  increasing  the  emotion,  it  is  highly 
valuable  to  the  child  to  refrain  from  outbursts  of  temper, 
from  giving  way  to  foolish  fears,  or  even  to  silly,  causeless  gig- 
gling. The  conscious  attempt  to  preserve  a  proper  demeanor 
has  a  salutary  effect  in  producing  habits  of  emotional  control. 
The  hysterical,  flighty  woman,  ready  to  go  into  spasms  on 
hearing  of  a  worm,  a  bug,  or  a  fire,  who  throws  a  whole  com- 
pany into  a  panic  in  a  time  of  excitement,  is  the  one  who  was 
never  taught  to  exercise  proper  self-restraint  as  a  child.  The 
cool,  "heady"  individual  who  averts  panics,  calms  the  crowd 
at  a  fire,  or  goes  tranquilly  into  battle  is  the  one  who  has 
schooled  himself  from  childhood  against  such  impulsive  out- 
bursts of  emotion.  The  freedom  of  the  moment  has  been 
bought  by  lifelong  discipline. 

Supreme  wisdom  is  needed  for  developing  well-regulated, 
healthful  sex  feelings.  They  are  among  the  most  deep-seated 
and  far-reaching.  Through  the  maintenance  of  perfect  health, 
the  restriction  of  food  and  appetites,  proper  exercise,  healthy 
interests  which  monopolize  the  mental  life,  by  giving  plenty 
of  physical  work  and  wise  companionship,  sex  feelings  should 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  319 

become  irradiated  into  the  higher  emotions  connected  with 
home-building,  social  interests,  and  altruism  in  general.  Just 
how  to  secure  this  ideal  is  not  easy  to  prescribe.  It  is  worthy 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  sages.  Thus  far  the  primer  of  the  sub- 
ject has  not  been  formulated. 

Motor- Culture  and  Moral  Culture. — Doctor  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  in  his  incomparable  article  on  moral  education  and  will- 
training,  points  out  the  immense  role  motor-training  has  occu- 
pied in  will  growth.  He  believes  that  city  children  of  to-day 
are  liable  to  deteriorate  volitionally,  largely  because  they  do 
not  have  opportunity  for  will-culture  through  motor-culture. 
By  contrast  he  pictures  the  opportunities  for  such  culture 
afforded  by  conditions  of  life  a  generation  or  two  ago.  In 
those  days  "most  schoolboys  had  either  farm  work,  chores, 
errands,  jobs  self-imposed  or  required  by  less  tender  parents; 
they  made  things,  either  toys  or  tools,  out  of  school.  Most 
schoolgirls  did  housework,  more  or  less  of  which  is,  like  farm 
work,  perhaps  the  most  varied  and  salutary  as  well  as  most 
venerable  of  all  schools  for  the  youthful  body  and  mind. 
They  undertook  extensive  works  of  embroidery,  bed-quilting, 
knitting,  sewing,  mending,  if  not  cleaning,  and  even  spinning 
and  weaving  their  own  or  others'  clothing,  and  cared  for  the 
younger  children.  The  wealthier  devised  or  imposed  tasks 
for  will-culture,  ...  as  part  of  their  education.  Ten  days 
at  the  hoe-handle,  axe,  or  pitchfork,  said  an  eminent  educator 
lately  in  substance,  with  no  new  impression  from  without,  and 
one  constant  and  only  duty,  is  a  schooling  in  perseverance  and 
sustained  effort  such  as  few  boys  now  get  in  any  shape." 
{Pedagogical  Seminary,  2:  73-74.) 

Children  should  be  taught  to  work.  A  child  that  has  not 
learned  to  work  has  not  mastered  the  A  B  C's  of  will- training. 
Work  differs  from  play  in  that  it  is  not  a  means  of  relaxation. 
Work  often  demands  that  activity  be  kept  up  long  after  ex- 
hilaration has  ceased.  An  object  must  be  accomplished  no 
matter  what  the  inclinations  may  dictate. 

Will  and  Deliberation. — Although  it  has  been  strongly 
argued  that  the  voluntary  execution  of  an  act  is  largely  con- 
ditioned upon  the  fund  of  allied  habits  which  have  been  built 


320        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

up,  yet  it  should  be  noted  that  the  highest  acts  of  will  involve 
conscious  deliberation.  While  it  has  been  strongly  urged 
that  the  surest  way  of  developing  strength  of  will  in  a  given 
direction  is  to  early  inculcate  habits  in  that  direction,  yet  this 
should  not  be  taken  to  mean  that  one  is  to  become  an  automa- 
ton. It  does  not  imply  that  the  child  should  not  become  a 
reflective  being.  He  should  most  certainly  be  early  accus- 
tomed to  reflecting  upon  his  conduct.  A  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility for  sound  judgment  and  righteous  action  should  early 
become  characteristics  of  one's  life.  It  is  a  perv^erted  and  per- 
nicious doctrine  of  interest  and  will  which  assumes  that  youth 
are  irresponsible  beings  who  may  be  excused  for  every  devia- 
tion from  the  path  of  rectitude  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
only  youth.  The  doctrine  is  sometimes  carried  so  far  as  to 
exonerate  even  university  students  for  committing  things 
which  would  land  other  adults  in  the  penitentiary.  Though 
college  education  should  and  does  prolong  the  period  of  in- 
fancy or  plasticity,  yet  all  training  has  been  misdirected  if  it 
has  not  developed  a  habit  of  serious  reflection  upon  every 
important  step  to  be  taken.  It  should  not  produce  vacilla- 
tion and  hesitation,  but  rather  sound  judgment  made  rapid 
by  the  acquired  habit  of  always  reflecting  and  marshalling  all 
sides  of  a  question.  Individual  duty  and  responsibility  are 
among  the  highest  lessons  to  be  learned,  and  the  most  difficult. 
Habit,  Will,  and  Character. — ^A  trained  will  means  a  con- 
trolled mind  and  body,  an  organism  that  responds  to  the  be- 
hests of  conscience.  This  ideal  condition  can  only  be  secured 
through  oft-repeated  actions  in  the  desired  direction.  Every 
action  performed  by  a  child,  whether  initiated  by  himself  or 
under  compulsion,  leaves  a  tendency  to  a  repetition  of  the 
same  action.  Of  course  any  process  self-initiated  is  more 
potent  by  far  than  one  performed  under  compulsion.  Hence 
the  importance  of  securing  deliberate  righteous  action  on  the 
part  of  the  child.  But  right  conduct,  even  though  compul- 
sory, is  better  for  the  child's  future  than  wrong  conduct 
selected  by  the  child.  Every  righteous  action  contributes  to 
the  fund  of  future  capital  which  constitutes  real  character. 


THE   DIRECTION   OF   BEHAVIOR  321 

What  one  does  in  a  controlled  manner  when  off  his  guard 
reveals  one's  real  character.  To  be  sure,  most  of  us  mas- 
querade a  great  deal  and  do  many  things  that  are  put  on  for 
the  occasion.  These  may  give  us  reputation,  but  they  are 
not  parts  of  real  character.  It  is  related  by  Schaeffer  that 
the  Pennsylvania  German  gives  vent  to  his  feelings  in  profan- 
ity in  his  own  native  dialect.  To  show  further  how  control 
is  only  secured  through  habitual  reactions  he  adds  that  "as 
soon  as  he  says  his  prayers  he  reverts  to  the  language  of  the 
pulpit  and  of  Luther's  Bible,  because  he  there  finds  the  words 
which  express  the  deepest  wants  and  emotions  of  the  human 
soul."     {Thinking  and  Learning  to  Think,  p.  93.) 

Educational  Significance. — This  conception  of  the  will, 
which  is  just  beginning  to  be  recognized,  is  of  great  impor- 
tance pedagogically.  Under  the  old  way  of  conceiving  the 
will  as  an  entity  of  predetermined  character,  it  was  certainly 
useless  to  try  to  cultivate  it,  though,  paradoxically,  the  same 
writers  who  promulgated  the  older  theories  of  will  and  free- 
dom of  the  will  discoursed  upon  the  great  possibilities  of  will 
development.  According  to  the  view  that  will  always  implies 
conscious  choice  and  deliberation,  there  could  be  no  training 
in  volitional  activities  until  there  had  been  developed  a  high 
degree  of  intellectual  and  affective  life.  There  could  be  Httle, 
if  any,  manifestation  of  will  in  animals,  and  none  in  children 
until  some  months  old.  There  would  certainly  be  no  use 
trying  to  train  the  w^ill  of  a  small  babe,  for  children  are  many 
months  old  before  they  deliberately  choose  and  execute.  The 
same  criticism  applies  here  as  to  all  of  that  psychology  in 
which  every  psychosis  was  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of 
adult  consciousness.  The  more  recent  psychology  considers 
everything  genetically  and  finds  a  rich  heritage  in  the  heredi- 
tary accumulations  and  in  the  subconscious  life  of  both  baby- 
hood and  of  normal  adult  life.  There  is  a  rich  mine  of  ex- 
perience gained  before  the  dawning  of  consciousness  which 
must  be  explored,  and  which  makes  up  a  worthy  portion  of 
all  our  tendencies.  We  have  learned  through  the  study  of 
memory  and  instinct  that  every  impression  leaves  its  inefface- 


322    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

able  trace.  Thus  every  infantile  kick  and  howl  and  tumble 
become  significant  for  the  larger  development  of  voluntary 
life.  We  have  seen  that  we  will  with  all  that  we  have  willed. 
To  will  in  absolutely  novel  directions  is  as  impossible  as  lifting 
oneself  by  the  boot-straps.  The  execution  of  every  movement 
becomes  significant.  Hence  it  becomes  important  to  regu- 
late this  congeries  of  random  movements  producing  orderly 
paths  of  execution.  Thus  when  we  train  the  child  to  eat 
regularly,  to  sleep  at  definite  times  and  quietly,  when  we 
promote  digestion,  when  we  care  for  its  physical  health  and 
keep  its  motor  apparatus  in  working  order,  we  are  helping 
him  to  lay  the  desirable  foundations  of  his  voluntary  life. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Distinguish  between  habit  and  will.  2.  Explain  the  place  of  habit  in 
the  development  of  will.  3.  Analyze  the  process  of  learning  to  write  and 
show  how  voluntary  control  is  developed.  4,  Point  out  the  relation  be- 
tween muscular  training  and  the  development  of  will.  5.  What  is  the 
popular  meaning  of  will  ?  How  does  it  differ  from  the  scientific  ?  6.  Trace 
fully  the  development  of  volition  in  sticking  to  one's  tasks.  7.  Point  out 
the  relation  between  willing  and  willingly.  8.  Relation  between  interest 
and  the  development  of  the  will.  9.  Meaning  oi  free  will  (a)  in  the  popu- 
lar sense,  (b)  in  a  scientific  sense.  10.  Relation  between  will  and  morality. 
II.  Are  all  moral  acts  volitional?  12.  Are  the  highest  acts  of  volition 
necessarily  moral?     13.  To  what  extent  is  will  a  matter  of  heredity? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  chaps.  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

2.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXVII. 

3.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  XI. 

4.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chaps.  Ill,  IV. 

5.  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  chaps.  IV,  VII,  XI. 

6.  O'Shea,  Mental  Development  and  Education,  chaps.  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

7.  Royce,  Outlines  of  Psychology,  chap.  XV. 

8.  Woodworth,  Psychology :  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  chap.  XX. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING 

Supposed  Effects  of  Training. — Oftentimes  the  question  is 
raised  as  to  why  certain  subjects  or  facts  should  be  learned 
by  the  child  when  they  seem  to  have  no  utilitarian  value. 
Very  frequently  the  answer  is:  '*They  train  and  strengthen 
the  mind."  When  I  entered  the  university  I  heard  the  presi- 
dent say  in  an  opening  address:  "When  I  was  in  college  I 
studied  trigonometry  and  calculus,  but  I  have  forgotten 
everything  I  learned,  but  the  power  still  abides  and  I  can 
use  it  in  other  relations."  It  is  assumed  that  the  training  in 
arithmetic,  grammar,  etc.,  will  strengthen  the  mind  for  all 
other  subjects  and  for  all  of  life's  duties.  Just  how  is  not 
understood,  but  there  has  been  and  is  a  very  firm  belief  that 
mental  gymnastics  of  one  type  strengthen  the  mind  in  every 
direction.  This  belief  that  training  of  one  power,  function,  or 
structure  will  develop  other  powers,  f mictions,  or  structures  is 
known  as  the  theory  of  ''formal  discipline,''  ''general  discipline,'* 
"transfer  of  training,"  or  "generalized  experience." 

It  is  held  that  the  effects  of  training  are  general,  and  that 
whatever  is  gained  in  a  given  direction  can  be  utilized  in  all 
other  situations  in  life.  The  strength  and  skill  derived  through 
pitching  hay,  swinging  Indian  clubs,  and  rowing  can  be  used 
in  skating,  swimming,  constructing  watches,  or  in  resisting 
fatigue  when  under  strain  in  professional  duties.  Analogous 
reasonings  are  followed  out  concerning  mental  growth  and 
exercise.  Each  subject  is  assumed  to  be  a  sort  of  mental 
grindstone  upon  which  the  wits  are  to  be  sharpened.  We 
are  told  that  the  study  of  arithmetic  and  grammar  will 
develop  strength  of  mind — a  sort  of  mental  muscle — which 
can  be  drawn  upon  in  any  emergency.  The  one  who  is  strong 
in  arithmetic,  it  is  assumed,  will  be  equally  proficient  in  geom- 

323 


324    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

etry,  botany,  and  foreign  languages.     The  traditional  subject 
for  strengthening  the  reasoning  powers  is  arithmetic. 

The  first  real  scientific  challenge  came  from  Professor  James 
in  his  classical  experiment  in  memory.  James  concluded 
from  that  experiment  that  training  memory  in  a  given  direc- 
tion had  no  effect  upon  memory  for  other  things.  Since  that 
time  hundreds  of  other  experiments  have  been  performed, 
most  of  them  pointing  in  the  same  direction.  The  essential 
features  of  all  the  experiments  are  as  follows: 

1.  Test  a  given  ability  before  training  on  something  entirely 

different. 

2.  Practise  upon  something  entirely  different  long  enough 

to  improve  in  doing  that. 

3.  Return  to  the  original  activity  and  test  ability  in  that 

after  practice  upon  something  entirely  different.     (Do 
not  exercise  in  the  first  direction.) 

4.  Compare  the  results  of  before  and  after  practice  in  steps 

I  and  3. 

The  best  and  most  exhaustive  experimental  work  in  this 
line  has  been  done  under  the  direction  of  Doctor  Thorndike 
at  Columbia  University.  Thorndike  and  Woodworth  made 
a  great  variety  of  experiments  to  discover  the  influence  of 
training  in  estimating  weights,  distances,  and  areas  upon 
other  subsequent  forms  of  learning.  In  Thorndike's  own 
words  {Educational  Psychology j  p.  90  et  seq.) : 

Individuals  practised  estimating  the  areas  of  rectangles  from  10  to 
100  sq.  cm.  in  size  until  a  very  marked  improvement  was  attained. 
The  improvement  in  accuracy  for  areas  of  the  same  size  but  of  differ- 
ent shape  due  to  this  training  was  only  44  per  cent  as  great  as  that 
for  areas  of  the  same  shape  and  size.  For  areas  of  the  same  shape 
but  from  140  to  300  sq.  cm.  in  size  the  improvement  was  30  per  cent 
as  great.  For  areas  of  different  shape  and  from  140  to  400  sq.  cm. 
in  size  the  improvement  was  52  per  cent  as  great. 

Training  in  estimating  weights  of  from  40  to  1 20  grammes  resulted  in 
only  39  per  cent  as  much  improvement  in  estimating  weights  from  120 
to  1,800  grammes.  Training  in  estimating  Hues  from  .5  to  1.5  inches 
long  (resulting  in  a  reduction  of  error  to  25  per  cent  of  the  initial 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  325 

amount)  resulted  in  no  improvement  in  the  estimation  of  lines  6  to 
12  inches  long. 

Training  in  perceiving  words  containing  e  and  s  gave  a  certain 
amount  of  improvement  in  speed  and  accuracy  in  that  special  ability. 
In  the  ability  to  perceive  words  containing  i  and  /,  s  and  />,  c  and  a, 
6  and  r,  a  and  w,  /  and  0,  misspelled  words  and  ^'s,  there  was  an  im- 
provement in  speed  of  only  39  per  cent  as  much  as  in  the  ability  spe- 
cially trained,  and  in  accuracy  of  only  25  per  cent  as  much.  Training 
in  perceiving  English  verbs  gave  a  reduction  in  time  of  nearly  21  per 
cent  and  in  omissions  of  70  per  cent.  The  ability  to  perceive  other 
parts  of  speech  showed  a  reduction  in  time  of  3  per  cent,  but  an  in- 
crease in  omissions  of  over  100  per  cent. 

These  experiments  showed  very  clearly  the  influence  of:  (i)  the 
acquisition  during  special  training  of  ideas  of  method  of  general  utility, 
and  also  (2)  of  facility  with  certain  elements  that  appeared  in  many 
other  complexes.  Instances  of  (i)  are  learning  in  the  10  to  100  cm. 
training  series  that  one  has  a  tendency  to  overestimate  all  areas  and 
consciously  making  a  discount  for  this  tendency,  no  matter  what  the 
size  or  shape  of  the  surface  may  be;  learning  to  look  especially  for  the 
less  common  letter  (e.  ^.,  .y  in  the  case  of  e-s  words,  />  in  the  case  of 
s-p  words)  in  the  training  series,  and  adopting  the  habit  for  all  similar 
work ;  learning  to  estimate  areas  in  comparison  with  a  mental  standard 
rather  than  the  objective  i  sq.  cm.,  25  sq.  cm.,  and  100  sq.  cm.  squares 
which  each  experimenter  had  before  him  (after  one  gets  mental  stand- 
ards of  the  areas  he  judges  more  accurately  if  he  pays  no  attention 
whatever  to  the  objective  standards).  An  instance  of  (2)  is  the  uni- 
form increase  of  speed  of  eye  movements  in  all  the  perception  tests 
through  training  in  one,  an  increase  often  gained  at  the  expense  of 
accuracy. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  authors  these  experiments  show  that: 

Improvement  in  any  single  mental  function  need  not  improve  the 
ability  in  functions  commonly  called  by  the  same  name.  It  may 
injure  it. 

Improvement  in  any  single  mental  function  rarely  brings  about 
equal  improvement  in  any  other  function,  no  matter  how  similar,  for 
the  working  of  every  mental  function-group  is  conditioned  by  the  na- 
ture of  the  data  in  each  particular  case. 

The  very  slight  amount  of  variation  in  the  nature  of  the  data  nec- 
essary to  affect  the  efficiency  of  a  function-group  makes  it  fair  to  infer 
that  no  change  in  data,  however  slight,  is  without  effect  on  the  func- 
tion. The  loss  in  the  efficiency  of  a  function  trained  with  certain 
data,  as  we  pass  to  data  more  and  more  unlike  the  first,  makes  it  fair 
to  infer  that  there  is  always  a  point  where  the  loss  is  complete,  a  point 
beyond  which  the  influence  of  the  training  has  not  extended.     The 


326        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

rapidity  of  this  loss,  that  is,  its  amount  in  the  case  of  data  very  similai- 
to  the  data  on  which  the  function  was  trained,  makes  it  fair  to  infer 
that  this  point  is  nearer  than  has  been  supposed. 

The  general  consideration  of  the  cases  of  retention  or  of  loss  of  prac- 
tice effect  seems  to  make  it  likely  that  spread  of  practice  occurs  only 
where  identical  elements  are  concerned  in  the  influencing  and  influenced 
function. 


Coover  (Coover,  J.  E.,  "Formal  Discipline  from  the  Stand- 
point of  Experimental  Psychology,"  Psychological  Review 
Monographs,  20,  No.  3,  191 6)  much  later  performed  similar 
experiments  in  marking  out  words  and  in  estimating  weights. 
The  cancellation  test  showed  a  gain  of  44  per  cent  in  the  train- 
ing series  and  33  per  cent  in  the  end  tests,  or  75  per  cent  as 
much  in  the  end  tests  as  in  the  training  series.  This  transfer 
effect  is  larger  than  that  found  by  Thorndike  and  Woodworth. 
Coover's  experiment  in  estimating  weights  was  made  by  train- 
ing two  persons  with  a  set  of  17  blocks  ranging  from  40  to 
120  grammes.  Each  person  made  i  ,700  judgments  in  the  prac- 
tice series.  They  were  tested  before  and  after  training  in  esti- 
mating 10  common  objects,  each  averaging  67.5  grammes  in 
weight.  There  was  a  gain  of  23  per  cent  in  the  training  series 
and  29  per  cent  in  the  end  tests  with  the  set  of  10  smaller 
objects,  but  a  loss  of  100  per  cent  with  the  larger  objects. 
The  gain  in  estimating  the  smaller  sets  was  apparently  greater 
than  in  the  training  series  itself. 

Many  experiments  have  been  made  with  school  subjects  to 
determine  the  effects  of  practice  in  one  subject  upon  efficiency 
in  other  subjects.  The  most  notable  of  these  was  performed 
by  Rugg  (Rugg,  Harold  O.,  The  Experimental  Determination 
of  Mental  Discipline  in  School  Studies,  191 6,  University  of 
Illinois).  He  made  a  study  of  the  influence  of  training  in 
descriptive  geometry.  He  used  a  great  variety  of  test  mate- 
rial, some  of  it  arithmetical,  some  geometrical.  The  experi- 
ments were  given  to  326  students  in  the  University  of  lUinois, 
College  of  Engineering.  As  a  control  group  he  had  78  stu- 
dents in  other  colleges  take  the  end  tests  but  not  the  practice 
work.     Rugg  makes  the  following  conclusions: 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING 


Z'^l 


The  study  of  descriptive  geometry  (under  ordinary  classroom  condi- 
tions throughout  a  semester  of  fifteen  weeks)  in  which  such  natural 
and  not  undue  consideration  is  given  to  practice  in  geometrical  visual- 
ization as  is  necessary  for  the  solution  of  descriptive  geometry  prob- 
lems operates: 

(i)  Substantially  to  increase  the  students'  ability  in  solving  prob- 
lems requiring  the  mental  manipulation  of  a  geometrical  nature,  the 
content  of  which  is  distinctly  different  from  the  visual  content  of  de- 
scriptive geometry  itself. 

(2)  Substantially  to  increase  the  students'  ability  in  solving  prob- 
lems requiring  the  mental  manipulation  of  spatial  elements  of  a  slightly 
geometrical  character,  i.  e.,  problems  utilizing  the  fundamental  ele- 
ments of  geometry  (the  point,  line,  and  plane),  but  apart  from  a  geo- 
metrical setting  and  in  such  form  as  to  offer  no  geometrical  aids  in 
solution. 

(3)  Substantially  to  increase  the  students'  ability  in  solving  prob- 
lems requiring  the  mental  manipulation  of  spatial  elements  of  a  com- 
pletely non-geometrical  nature,  i.  e.,  problems  in  which  the  straight 
line  and  plane  do  not  appear  in  any  way  w^hatsoever. 

(4)  The  training  effect  of  such  study  in  descriptive  geometry  oper- 
ates more  efficiently  in  those  problems  whose  visual  content  more 
closely  resembles  that  of  the  training  course  itself,  i.  e.,  in  those  prob- 
lems whose  imagery  content  is  composed  of  combinations  of  points, 
lines,  and  planes,  and  in  which  the  continuity  of  the  manipulating 
movements  approaches  the  continuity  of  those  in  the  training  course. 
(Rugg,  pp.  114-115.) 

Harris  made  a  study  of  the  effect  of  knowledge  of  Latin 
upon  ability  to  spell  English  words  by  submitting  a  list  of 
50  words  of  Latin  origin  to  324  freshmen  in  the  University  of 
Illinois.     He  gives  the  following  table: 


TABLE  65 
After  Harris  ('15) 


YEARS   OF   LATIN 

0 

^ 

2 

3 

4 

Number  of  students 

90 

82.1 

41 

82.4 

95 

80.2 

54 
81.5 

44 
90.1 

Average 

He  further  submitted  to  the  same  group  of  students  10 
words  of  Latin  origin  which  were  to  be  defined.  This  test 
gave  the  following  result: 


328        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

TABLE  66 
After  Harris  ('15) 


YEARS   OF   LATIN 

0 

I 

2 

3 

4 

Number  of  students 

90 
30.5 

41 

44.2 

95 
45  9 

54 
530 

44 

85-3 

Average 

He  also  compared  the  grades  in  rhetoric  of  students  who 
had  had  various  amounts  of  Latin  as  follows: 

TABLE  67 
After  Harris  ('15) 


YEARS   OF   LATIN 

0 

I 

2 

3 

4 

Number  of  students 

Grade 

53 
77.2 

41 
79.2 

66, 
79-5 

28 
80.6 

26 

81.8 

Harris  concludes: 

From  these  various  results  the  conclusions  in  so  far  as  these  students 
are  concerned  are  obvious.  In  all  fields  the  four-year  Latin  students 
showed  a  marked  lead,  and  in  all  but  the  spelling — which  I  have  con- 
sidered above — there  is  a  steady  retrogression,  although  for  the  prac- 
tical purposes  the  one-and-two-year  Latin  students  might  be  classed 
together.     (Quoted  from  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  pp.  234-235.) 

A  most  exhaustive,  critical  analysis  was  recently  made  by 
Reed  of  all  the  experimental  studies  that  had  been  made 
relating  to  the  subject  of  transfer  of  training.  In  addition  he 
repeated  several  of  the  original  experiments  and  also  performed 
a  new  set  of  experiments  which  he  devised.  His  study  is  the 
latest  important  contribution  to  the  subject.  His  own  ex- 
periments tested  transfer  from  the  standpoint  of  association. 
He  believes  there  is  transfer  of  effects  from  one  activity  to 
another  when  associations  are  made  relating  to  them.  His 
point  of  view  may  be  well  summarized  in  direct  quotations 
from  his  two  monographs: 

In  any  case,  the  spread  of  improvement  from  a  special  function  is 
not  general,  but  it  is  very  specialized  and  affects  only  such  other  special 


THE   TRANSFER   OF   TRAINING  329 

functions  that  are  very  similar  to  the  one  specially  trained.  The  re- 
sult of  the  test  experiment  in  regard  to  the  transfer  of  training  is  that 
the  findings  of  Ebert  and  Meumann  and  the  conclusions  based  upon 
them,  that  there  is  a  general  memorial  function  and  that  special  train- 
ing in  one  function  improves  the  memory  in  general,  are  not  con- 
firmed. Nor  is  their  theory  confirmed  that  transfer  from  one  function 
to  another  is  in  proportion  as  the  functions  are  allied.* 

Training  in  card  sorting  does  not  improve  ability  to  typewrite. 
Training  in  estimating  areas  10-100  sq.  cm.  does  not  improve  ability 
to  estimate  similar  areas  over  200  sq.  cm.  in  size.  Training  in  estimat- 
ing lines  .5  to  1.5  inches  long  does  not  improve  ability  to  estimate  ob- 
jects from  2.5  to  8.75  inches  long  when  the  latter  consists  of  such 
things  as  envelopes,  brushes,  and  wrenches.  Training  in  estimating 
four  intensities  of  sound  does  not  improve  ability  to  estimate  the 
extent  of  arm  movement.  Training  in  cancelling  parts  of  speech  does 
not  improve  ability  to  cancel  words  having  the  letters  e  and  /.  Train- 
ing in  memorizing  "Paradise  Lost"  does  not  improve  the  memory  for 
Hugo's  verse.  Training  in  memorizing  nonsense  syllables  does  not 
increase  the  memory-span  for  letters,  numbers,  nonsense  syllables,  dis- 
connected words,  Latin-English  vocabularies,  poetry,  and  prose;  nor 
the  ability  to  memorize  completely  meaningless  visual  characters, 
Latin-English  vocabularies,  and  passages  of  poetry  and  of  prose. 
Training  in  memorizing  prose  substance  does  not  improve  the  ability 
to  memorize  dates,  nonsense  syllables,  poetry,  points  on  a  map,  dicta- 
tion, letters,  and  names.  Training  in  memorizing  tables  does  not 
improve  ability  to  memorize  dates,  poetry,  prose,  prose  substance,  dic- 
tation, letters,  and  names.  Memorizing  poetry  does  not  improve 
ability  to  memorize  dates,  poetry  of  another  sort,  prose,  prose  sub- 
stance, points  on  a  map,  dictation,  letters,  and  names. 

I  have  also  examined  the  results  of  experiments  on  the  transfer  of 
training  by  Bagley  and  Squire,  Briggs,  Burnet,  Coover,  Dallenbach, 
W.  F.  Dearborn,  Foster,  Hewins,  Judd,  Ruger,  Scholkow  and  Judd, 
Wallin,  Whipple,  and  Winch,  but  have  not  been  able  to  make  them 
the  basis  of  a  theoretical  discussion  because  they  were  too  indefinite, 
irregular,  or  complicated  to  bring  within  a  consistent  rule.  However, 
no  theory  that  is  at  all  specific  can  explain  all  cases  of  reported  transfer. 
The  psychological  factors  in  the  cases  of  positive  transfer  described 
above  were  pointed  out.  In  the  cases  of  negative  or  zero  transfer  it  is 
difiicult  to  find  common  sensory  stimuli,  and  common  conceptual 
stimuli  that  may  exist  are  too  general  to  be  effective.  It  is  also  diffi- 
cult to  find  common  conceptual  or  associative  responses.  But  some 
cases  of  positive  transfer  are  equally  baffling;  for  example,  training  in 

*  "A  Repetition  of  Ebert  and  Meumann's  Practice  Experiment  on  Mem- 
ory," Journal  of  Experimental  Psychology,  191 7. 


330 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


memorizing  poetry  has  been  found  to  improve  the  ability  to  locate 
points  on  a  map  and  to  memorize  nonsense  syllables,  but  interfered 
with  the  ability  to  learn  poetry  of  another  sort,  prose,  or  prose  sub- 
stance. Memorizing  tables  improved  the  ability  to  locate  points  in  a 
circle  and  to  learn  nonsense  syllables,  but  interfered  with  the  ability 
to  learn  dates,  poetry,  or  prose.  The  difficulty  with  all  these  studies 
is  that  the  associative  processes  were  not  investigated.  If  we  knew 
what  the  common  bonds  of  association  had  been  in  these  cases  of  posi- 
tive and  negative  transfer,  we  probably  should  have  the  clew  to  their 
explanation.  The  correlation  between  observable  stimuli  and  observ- 
able responses  is  too  irregular  to  make  a  consistent  principle  inferable 
with  certainty,  but  such  regular  correlations  as  there  are  point  quite 
definitely  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  in  the  laws  of  association.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  future  investigators  of  this  problem  will  more  care- 
fully examine  the  internal  facts  of  transfer,  i.  e.,  the  common  associa- 
tive bonds.  * 

Differences  in  an  Individual's  Abilities. — Were  the  doctrine 
of  general  discipline  true,  there  ought  to  be  no  variations 
among  our  powers.  The  power  gained  in  one  capacity  is  said 
to  be  carried  over  to  all  others.  All  varieties  of  accomplish- 
ment dependent  upon  a  given  power  ought  then  to  be  equally 
attained.  For  example,  one  ought  to  be  as  proficient  in 
algebra  as  in  history,  as  proficient  in  geometry  as  in  algebra, 
as  good  in  grammar  as  in  botany.  But  it  needs  no  demon- 
stration to  convince  that  there  are  great  variations  in  accom- 
plishment among  different  subjects  by  the  same  individual, 
and,  what  is  more,  these  varieties  in  accomplishment  often 
represent  fundamental  differences  in  capacity.  One  may  be 
inclined  to  natural  science  and  have  poor  mathematical  abil- 
ity, be  a  fine  linguist  and  sadly  lacking  in  mathematical  rea- 
soning, or  skilful  in  music  and  poorly  equipped  for  logic  and 
philosophy.  Who  ever  saw  many  musicians  with  a  philo- 
sophical bent  of  mind  ?  It  is  even  true  that  a  given  individual 
may  have  rare  power  in  algebraic  mathematics,  where  all  de- 
pends upon  logical  trains  of  thought  and  power  of  abstraction, 
but  may  be  very  inefficient  in  geometric  mathematics,  where 

*  "Associative  Aids:  I.  Their  relation  to  Learning,  Retention,  and  Other 
Associations;  II.  Their  Relation  to  Practice  and  the  Transfer  of  Train- 
ing."    Psychological  Review,  191 8. 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  331 

so  much  depends  upon  those  qualities  of  visual  Imagination 
necessary  to  a  good  topographical  mind.  How  many  would 
be  willing  to  be  judged  mentally  for  all  situations  by  ability 
to  spell  ?  So  generally  is  inaptitude  for  spelling  recognized 
that  no  one  jeopardizes  his  reputation  by  confessing  to  being 
far  short  in  this  particular.  Probably  many  cases  of  poor 
orthography  bespeak  carelessness  in  the  matter  rather  than 
the  lack  of  ability,  but  multitudes  justly  take  refuge  under 
the  plea  of  Incapacity.  It  Is  but  necessary  to  note  also  the 
ease  with  which  some  children  learn  to  spell.  Those  who 
have  to  toil  at  It  and  then  achieve  Indifferent  results  are  apt 
to  marvel  at  the  celerity  of  the  more  favored  ones.  Thorn- 
dike  {Principles  of  Teaching,  p.  83)  reports  a  class  test  In 
spelling  which  shows  that  the  best  speller  had  nineteen  out 
of  twenty  words  correct,  while  the  poorest  missed  all  but 
three.     Any  teacher  in  the  work  could  duplicate  the  Hst. 

Biological  Evidence. — One  of  the  most  convincing  argu- 
ments against  the  theory  of  formal  discipline  comes  from 
biology.  Exercise  of  an  organ  or  function  tends  to  produce 
development  of  that  organ  or  function.  While  such  exercise 
may  have  a  general  tonic  effect  upon  the  rest  of  the  organism, 
growth  and  development  are  largely  limited  to  the  parts  ex- 
ercised. A  study  of  the  evolution  of  the  various  powers  of 
body  and  mind  showed  clearly  the  effects  of  stimulations 
long  continued  upon  given  portions  of  the  organism.  (Bol- 
ton, Principles  of  Education,  chap.  IV.)  We  noted,  for  ex- 
ample, how  special  forms  of  activity  have  changed  the  muz- 
zle and  the  feet  of  the  polar  bear;  how  particular  modes  of 
life  have  developed  in  other  animals  peculiar  claws,  teeth, 
hoofs,  hair,  eyes,  or  ears;  how  changes  occur  in  plants  when 
removed  from  one  environment  to  another.  In  all  of  these 
it  is  evident  that  the  application  of  new  stimuli  to  a  given 
organ  or  function  made  its  effects  manifest  almost  wholly  in 
that  limited  portion.  In  a  negative  way  the  withdrawal  of  a 
particular  stimulus  causes  atrophy  in  the  special  organ.  One 
of  the  best  illustrations  of  this  is  in  the  case  of  cave  animals, 
whose  eyes  have  atrophied  and  become  rudimentary.     The 


332         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

animals  as  a  whole  are  little  affected.  Similarly  changes  in 
hoofs,  fur,  legs,  fins,  or  teeth,  etc.,  take  place  with  little  cor- 
relative effect  upon  other  portions  of  the  animal. 

The  theory  of  the  localization  of  function  and  all  the  facts 
supporting  it  are  arguments  against  the  theory  of  formal  dis- 
cipline. Special  localized  areas  and  special  functions  could 
never  have  been  developed  had  not  the  effects  of  exercise  been 
cumulative  at  certain  points  rather  than  evenly  diffused. 
Nourishment  was  supplied  to  the  particular  parts  in  excess  of 
that  supplied  to  any  other  parts.  Consequently  growth  and 
development  followed  in  the  particular  directions.  A  given 
portion  of  the  brain  controlling  a  special  function  may  be 
materially  increased  in  development  without  much  affecting 
other  parts.  Certain  portions  unexercised  may  atrophy  with- 
out causing  degeneration  of  other  parts.  Again,  a  given  area 
may  sometimes  be  completely  excised  without  seriously  affect- 
ing the  remaining  portions.  Only  in  very  low  unspecialized 
forms  may  substitution  of  other  areas  take  place.  If  the 
theory  of  general  powers  were  true,  any  portion  of  the  brain 
ought  to  be  able  to  take  on  the  function  originally  controlled 
by  the  part  destroyed.  If  the  doctrine  of  general  powers  were 
true,  it  would  be  inconceivable  that  localization  and  speciali- 
zation should  ever  have  taken  place.  Any  organ  ought,  ac- 
cording to  that  theory,  to  be  able  to  control  any  function,  and 
undifferentiated,  homogeneous  structure  would  have  served 
equally  as  well  as  the  exceedingly  complex,  specialized  brain 
which  we  possess.  With  the  gradual  isolation,  insulation, 
and  specialization  of  functions,  however,  efficiency  has  arisen. 

Starch  {Educational  Psychology,  191 9,  p.  254)  made  an  ex- 
haustive evaluation  of  all  of  the  principal  studies  that  had 
been  made  down  to  that  time.  He  offers  the  following  con- 
clusions: 

In  formulating  an  opinion  concerning  general  training  effects  result- 
ing from  training  of  special  capacities,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  even 
where  the  transfer  effect  is  considerable,  as  much  as  one-fourth  to  one- 
third  as  much  as  in  the  capacity  specially  trained,  it  is  obviously  more 
economical  to  give  practice  directly  to  the  capacities  which  we  want 


THE  TRANSFER  OF  TRAINING  333 

to  train  rather  than  to  do  it  indirectly  with  the  hope  that  the  improve- 
ment may  be  transferred  to  them.  Concretely,  even  if  the  study  of 
Latin  under  favorable  methods  of  teaching  does  improve  the  spell- 
ing of  English  words,  would  it  not  be  more  economical  to  study  directly 
the  spelling  of  the  words  which  are  to  be  acquired  ?  Knowledge  of  the 
most  common  Latin  words  from  which  the  largest  number  of  English 
words  are  derived  could  be  obtained  in  a  relatively  short  period  of 
time,  probably  a  year  or  even  less.  Learning  to  play  the  piano  might 
help  in  learning  to  play  the  violin,  but  no  sane  person  would  devote 
very  much  time  to  the  piano  if  his  sole  purpose  were  to  learn  to  play 
the  violin. 

Even  if  mathematics  may  cause  some  improvement  in  reasoning 
about  bargains,  even  if  the  study  of  Latin  may  increase  English  vocab- 
ulary, or  even  if  a  study  of  animal  psychology  did  make  a  man  a  better 
teamster,  these  effects  are  relatively  very  small,  and  can  be  produced 
much  more  economically  by  a  direct  study  of  bargains,  or  of  the  origin 
and  meaning  of  English  words,  or  of  driving  horses.  A  course  in 
mathematics  or  in  Latin  or  in  psychology  will  have  to  stand  primarily 
on  its  own  feet  for  the  content  that  it  offers  or  the  skill  that  it  develops. 
These  by-products  may  be  useful  but  they  cannot  be  the  sole  purpose 
of  the  efforts  put  into  a  course.  The  value  of  a  meal  depends  upon 
the  meal  itself  and  not  upon  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  table. 
Whenever  a  subject  loses  its  content  value  through  changed  social 
conditions  it  seems  mysteriously  to  acquire  a  great  deal  of  disciplinary 
value. 

An  immense  amoimt  of  confusion  in  the  thinking  about  the  prob- 
lem of  mental  discipline  and  the  value  of  school  subjects,  even  on  the 
part  of  distinguished  thinkers,  has  resulted  from  a  failure  to  discrimi- 
nate between  the  effect  of  a  certain  kind  of  education  and  the  native 
capacities  of  the  individuals  subjected  to  the  education.  Whenever 
allowance  or  deductions  for  differences  in  original  ability  have  been 
made,  the  general  disciplinary  effect  has  been  found  to  be  much  less, 
or,  in  many  instances,  even  non-existent.  To  argue  that  because  cer- 
tain great  leaders  of  men  had  a  certain  type  of  education,  it  must  have 
produced  their  greatness,  does  not  prove  the  point.  They  probably 
would  have  achieved  distinction  if  they  had  had  any  other  sort  of  edu- 
cation. If  the  chief  argument  for  pursuing  a  given  subject  is  that  it 
selects  the  more  able  pupils,  it  would  be  much  more  economical  to  do 
so  by  a  shorter  and  more  certain  method.  Almost  any  fifteen  or 
twenty  mental  tests  that  can  be  applied  in  a  psychological  laboratory 
in  two  hours  would  separate  much  more  accurately  the  gifted  from 
the  stupid. 

Finally,  the  upshot  of  the  experimental  and  statistical  inquiries  into 
the  transference  of  training  is  that  effects  of  training  are  transferred  in 


334        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

smaller  amounts  and  within  much  narrower  limits  than  has  commonly 
been  assumed.  This  does  not  mean  that  there  is  no  general  mental 
discipline  in  any  form  of  training,  nor  that  the  doctrine  of  formal  disci- 
pline has  been  "exploded,"  but  rather  that  the  actual  limits  of  general 
discipline  have  been  more  accurately  defined.  These  limits,  to  be 
sure,  seem  to  be  much  narrower  than  many  are  inclined  to  believe. 
So  far  as  the  value  of  school  subjects  is  concerned,  it  means  that  the 
content  value  of  a  subject  must  be  the  prime  reason  and  the  general 
disciplinary  value  the  secondary  reason  for  pursuing  it. 


Types  of  Transfer. — Inasmuch  as  any  physical  work,  no 
matter  how  complex,  is  made  up  of  simple  elements,  it  also 
follows  that  these  elements  can  be  woven  into  manifold  new 
combinations.  Whenever  a  new  activity  involves  an  element 
already  learned,  that  part  of  the  process  does  not  need  to  be 
again  mastered.  However,  it  must  be  recognized  that  not 
only  the  element  but  also  its  connections  have  to  be  consid- 
ered. One  who  has  used  the  arm  and  hand  in  a  variety  of 
motions,  which  may  be  combined  in  using  a  brace  and  bit,  a 
plane,  a  chisel,  or  a  saw,  or  in  adjusting  watches,  has  not 
therefore  mastered  carpentry  or  watchmaking.  If  he  has 
good  general  control  of  the  hand  he  already  has  much  capital 
to  draw  upon.  But  if  the  new  process  is  an  absolutely  novel 
one  as  a  whole  and  also  in  its  elements,  then  what  has  been 
learned  is  of  no  avail  in  the  new  direction. 

Similarly  with  mental  operations.  Almost  any  study  in- 
volves elements  that  have  been  mastered  in  other  connections. 
These  elements  are  immediately  serviceable.  For  example,  in 
beginning  the  study  of  percentage  it  is  found  that  the  subject 
is  mainly  a  combination  of  old  principles  and  processes,  with 
only  a  slight  addition  of  new  ones.  Algebra  grows  right  out 
of  the  mathematical  ideas  gained  in  arithmetic,  and  calculus 
is  but  an  extension  and  recombination  of  arithmetic,  algebra, 
geometry,  and  trigonometry.  When  the  ordinary  child  be- 
gins geography,  mathematics,  Latin,  or  German  he  has  had 
several  years*  experience  in  reading  and  writing.  He  knows 
the  use  of  letters  and  symbols,  has  acquired  some  knowledge 
of  language  classification  and  rules.     He  has,  in  fact,  multi- 


THE   TRANSFER   OF   TRAINING  335 

tudes  of  elements  as  capital  upon  which  he  should  immediately 
draw.  Thus  all  studies  are  in  a  way  related  and  to  that  ex- 
tent the  mastery  of  one  helps  in  the  acquisition  of  others. 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  combination  of  old 
and  even  perfectly  familiar  elements  is  a  difficult  matter  in 
itself.  Old  combinations  may  even  be  a  hindrance,  especially 
if  too  fixed.  Bad  habits  of  walking,  talking,  writing,  singing, 
or  thinking  are  harder  to  modify  than  new  ones  are  to  incul- 
cate. In  percentage  all  one  has  to  do  is  to  apply  the  knowl- 
edge of  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  division,  and 
fractions.  "All?"  Yes.  But,  ay,  there's  the  rub.  A  stu- 
dent said  to  me  once  before  commencing  the  study  of  the 
science  of  education:  "Why,  all  one  has  to  do  is  to  learn  psy- 
chology and  then  just  apply  it."  "Yes,"  I  answered,  "that  is 
all  you  have  to  do."  Before  the  year  was  over  he  discovered 
that  learning  to  just  apply  it  was  a  task  not  inferior  in  diffi- 
culty to  anything  he  had  ever  undertaken. 

It  is  not  here  maintained  that  the  pursuit  of  a  given  sub- 
ject can  have  no  value  in  the  study  of  another  subject  later 
pursued.  It  is  claimed  that  exercise  in  a  given  direction  pro- 
duces greater  growth  of  the  special  powers  involved  than  in 
any  other.  Most  subjects  of  instruction  have  a  great  many 
similar  elements.  As  far  as  they  have  similar  elements  they 
are  valuable  for  each  other.  The  greater  the  number  of  iden- 
tical elements  in  the  two,  the  greater  the  value.  Physics  has 
a  great  many  points  in  common  with  chemistry,  geology  with 
zoology,  French  with  Latin,  etc.  All  subjects  are  related  to 
language,  and  consequently  language  illuminates  them  all. 
But  when  we  select  two  that  are  as  far  apart  as  typewriting 
and  arithmetic,  or  as  card-playing  and  Chinese,  it  is  certain 
that  the  pursuit  of  one  does  not  put  one  far  ahead  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  other.  Would  a  doctor  of  philosophy 
have  any  advantage  over  a  high-school  graduate  in  learning 
stenography  or  music?  According  to  the  theory  of  formal 
discipline,  the  years  of  study  on  thought  problems  ought  to 
have  increased  ability  in  gaining  the  technic  of  music  and 
typewriting — but  it  does  not. 


336         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

Effect  of  Ideals. — Next  in  value  to  the  elements  of  old 
knowledge  which  are  utilized  in  learning  new  things,  there 
are  certain  ideals  and  attitudes  toward  work.  There  are  no 
general  faculties  of  attention,  memory,  and  reason  which 
attend,  memorize,  and  reason  about  one  thing  as  well  as  an- 
other by  simply  "connecting  them  up."  But  there  are  habits 
of  attending  to  things,  of  trying  to  memorize,  trying  to  reason; 
in  short,  habits  of  striving  for  excellence,  which  are  no  mean 
possession.  In  fact,  oftentimes  the  ideals  of  excellence  and 
of  application  to  duty  are  among  the  most  valuable  assets 
which  the  schoolboy  acquires.  But  he  acquires  these  on  the 
farm,  in  the  store,  or  in  the  shop  as  well  as  in  the  school — 
frequently  better.  It  depends  largely  upon  the  kind  of  asso- 
ciates he  has.  The  value  that  we  often  so  erroneously  ascribe 
to  a  given  subject  or  kind  of  work  is  more  truthfully  a  bene- 
fit with  which  our  parents,  teachers,  and  associates  should 
be  credited.  They  may  inculcate  a  desirable  attitude  to- 
ward all  work  which  is  of  immense  value  in  every  relation  in 
life. 

Judd  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  scientific  exponents  of 
the  theory  of  transfer  of  training.  It  is  true  that  he  does 
maintain  that  transfer  may  take  place.  He  cites  experi- 
mental evidence  to  prove  the  point.  At  the  same  time  he 
does  not  maintain  that  transfer  takes  place  equally  in  all 
directions.  Sometimes  there  is  much  transfer,  sometimes  lit- 
tle, sometimes  none,  and  sometimes  the  results  may  be  a 
hindrance.  That  is,  sometimes  the  very  learning  of  one  habit 
may  hinder  the  acquisition  of  some  other  habit. 

He  makes  a  real  contribution  in  pointing  out  that  transfer 
takes  place  through  the  formation  of  associations,  through 
applying  and  generalizing  experiences.  For  example,  Latin 
will  improve  ability  in  English  very  decidedly  if  an  attempt 
is  made  to  show  the  relation  betw^een  Latin  and  English; 
school  studies  may  strengthen  one  for  life's  duties,  provided 
the  relation  is  shown  between  what  is  learned  in  school  and 
life  problems  outside.  Too  often  the  work  of  the  school  is 
isolated  in  two  ways,  (a)  in  being  unrelated  to  life  and  (b)  in 


THE   TRANSFER   OF  TRAINING  337 

each  topic  and  subject  being  unrelated  to  all  the  rest.     Judd 
says: 

There  is  no  inherent  reason  in  the  psychology  of  the  individual  mind 
or  in  the  psychology  of  any  subject  of  instruction  for  supposing  that 
experience  cannot  be  generalized.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
reason  to  assume  that  experience  of  any  type  will  infallibly  carry  over 
into  any  other  sphere  whatsoever.  .  .  .  Everywhere  in  human  ex- 
perience there  are  large  possibilities  of  generalizing  experience,  and 
everywhere  in  school  there  is  danger  that  experience  will  be  narrowly 
specialized.     {The  Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects,  p.  420.) 

Application  in  Curriculum-Making. — If  one  maintains  that 
powers  are  entirely  general  rather  than  largely  special,  one 
must  logically  maintain  that  it  makes  little  difference  as  to 
what  kind  of  facts  are  included  in  the  course  of  study.  Men- 
tal gymnastics  is  assumed  to  be  the  important  thing.  That 
theory  imperils  the  whole  theory  of  moral  growth.  It  makes 
all  the  difference  in  the  world  what  knowledge  our  boys  and 
girls  receive.  Their  feelings  are  aroused  by  knowledge,  and 
their  activities  often  determined  directly  by  the  facts  they 
learn. 

Even  from  the  side  of  the  intellect  it  makes  much  differ- 
ence. Were  mental  gymnastics  the  only  requisite  of  intellec- 
tual growth,  we  might  separate  a  child  from  his  fellows,  set 
him  to  playing  checkers  or  chess,  or  learning  Russian  or 
Choctaw,  and  then  he  would  be  fitted  for  society,  be  capable 
of  judging  of  human  actions  as  well  as  though  he  had  come 
in  contact  with  objective  facts  dealing  w^th  society  and  human 
activities. 

Studies  Should  be  Regarded  as  Worth  While. — Why  should 
subjects  be  studied  if  not  for  the  intellectual  gymnastics  ?  We 
may  ask  a  similar  question  about  physical  work.  We  can 
easily  find  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  doing  physical  and 
intellectual  work  without  appealing  to  the  theory  of  formal 
discipline.  The  work  should  be  worth  doing.  If  not,  it 
should  be  left  undone.  The  worthfulness  of  the  ends  secured 
through  labor  have  been  the  dominating  motives  of  all  human 
work.     No  one  normally  goes  through  a  treadmill  existence 


338        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

for  the  sake  of  doing  the  treading.  In  adult  life  one  does  not 
do  intellectual  work  for  the  sake  of  the  exercise.  When  we 
plan  buildings,  lay  out  political  campaigns,  develop  war  poli- 
cies, or  write  books,  we  do  not  do  so  for  the  sake  of  the  prac- 
tice. The  ends  must  appeal  to  us  as  being  worth  while  in 
themselves.  It  may  be  that  in  executing  a  given  kind  of 
work  we  develop  added  power  for  similar  kinds  of  work,  but 
even  that  kind  of  motive  would  not  keep  us  long  at  our  task. 
The  end  to  be  accomplished  must  be  the  magnet  which  draws 
us  irresistibly  on. 

The  case  is  similar  with  children's  activities.  Normally 
they  engage  in  all  sorts  of  exercises  for  the  sake  of  the  end. 
Play  has  been  defined  as  exercise  which  is  careless  of  the  ends 
to  be  secured.  This  is  a  false  interpretation.  Play  not  ruled 
by  entrancing  ends  to  be  accomplished  ceases  to  be  play. 
True,  when  ends  are  accomplished,  new  objects  are  at  once 
conceived  as  worthful  and  new  plays  engaged  in.  But  play 
in  which  the  end  does  not  lure  the  child  on  becomes,  like  too 
much  of  his  arithmetic  and  writing,  mere  drudgery.  In  these 
the  objects  are  not  understood  or  appreciated,  and  hence  are 
distasteful. 

Subjects  should  be  studied  because  they  are  intrinsically 
valuable;  because  the  possession  of  a  knowledge  of  them  is 
distinctly  worth  while.  One  of  the  highest  arts  of  the  peda- 
gogue is  to  make  the  pupil  see  and  appreciate  these  values, 
and  consequently  to  be  so  attracted  by  the  acquisition  that 
he  is  unsatisfied  without  them.  The  boy  should  study  arith- 
metic, not  because  he  is  to  gain  mental  muscle  for  the  prac- 
tice of  law  or  politics,  but  because  the  arithmetic  is  an  in- 
dispensable thing  for  him  to  know.  He  ought  to  be  led  to 
appreciate  this,  and  can  be  under  skilful  guidance.  He  ought 
to  study  Latin  because  the  Latin  has  intrinsic  value.  Gram- 
mar ought  to  be  studied  not  for  the  gymnastics  afforded,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  grammar.  If  the  disciplinarian's  conten- 
tions were  true,  then  the  kind  of  arithmetic  and  grammar 
would  be  immaterial.  The  most  antiquated  cases  in  arith- 
metic and  the  most  obsolete  grammatical  forms  would  serve 


THE   TRANSFER   OF   TRAINING  339 

just  as  well  as  modern  subject-matter.  The  text-books  on 
geography,  arithmetic,  and  grammar  of  our  grandfathers 
would  do  just  as  well  as  those  containing  more  modern  infor- 
mation if  gymnastics  were  all  that  is  required.  The  formalist 
is  apt  to  say  that  discipline  for  power  is  the  object  of  all 
study,  that  the  facts  learned  are  forgotten  anyway,  that  it 
makes  Httle  difference  what  one  studies  provided  only  that 
he  studies  hard  (and  pursues  the  formalist's  favorite  studies !). 

Need  for  Varied  Experiences. — If  the  emotions,  for  exam- 
ple, are  to  be  properly  developed  the  mind  must  be  occupied 
with  ideas  which  arouse  the  emotions.  How  can  the  emotion 
of  patriotism  be  aroused  except  through  ideas  which  deal  with 
fidelity,  loyalty,  and  the  necessity  of  the  fraternal  spirit? 
How  can  sympathy  be  awakened  without  knowledge  of  the 
feelings  of  joy,  sorrow,  sadness,  despondency?  These  can 
only  be  gained  by  witnessing  them  in  others  and  experiencing 
them  ourselves.  No  purely  intellectual  consideration  alone 
can  bring  into  life  the  deepest  emotions.  Emotional  experi- 
ence is  an  absolute  condition  of  development.  Arithmetic 
will  not  do  it,  geometry  will  not  do  it,  linguistic  drill  fails, 
manual  training  fails,  all  fail  except  that  which  touches  the 
germinal  life  of  the  emotions  and  adds  to  their  potentialities. 
Darwin  tells  us  that  his  later  life  was  full  of  regret  that  he 
had  no  interest  in  music  and  art.  The  aesthetic  failed  com- 
pletely to  find  response  in  him.  He  ascribes  as  a  cause  the 
excessive  devotion  through  a  long  life  to  purely  intellectual 
pursuits.  His  mind  had  become  unsymmetrical  by  the  hy- 
peractivity in  certain  directions  and  the  absence  of  exercise 
in  others. 

We  rightly  say  that  ethical  growth  and  culture  are  the 
highest  ends  of  education.  But  in  practice  we  ignore  all  laws 
for  the  attainment  of  these  ends  by  centring  the  main  cur- 
rent of  the  child's  school  life  upon  purely  intellectual  activi- 
ties. We  profess  to  be  deeply  concerned  lest  the  child  wan- 
der from  the  paths  of  rectitude,  but  instead  of  pre-empting 
his  mind  with  high  ideals,  such  as  could  be  gathered  from  lit- 
erature and  history,  we  cause  him  to  spend  most  of  his  school 


340    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

life  in  learning  rules  of  mathematics  and  language  and  acquir- 
ing some  degree  of  dexterity  in  handling  their  forms  and 
formulas.  Now,  arithmetic  touches  a  great  many  rules,  but 
nowhere  in  it  could  I  ever  discover  the  "Golden  Rule."  No, 
the  only  way  in  which  one  could  learn  to  do  unto  others  as 
he  would  be  done  by  is  by  associating  with  others  and  learn- 
ing the  meaning  of  altruism.  This  can  be  done  partly  through 
the  living  contact  and  partly  through  subjects  which  deal 
with  similar  situations.  If  moral  growth  is  to  be  secured, 
instruction  must  have  a  moral  content,  and  the  child  must 
be  exercised  in  dealing  with  situations  involving  moral  activi- 
ties, and  in  a  higher  stage  his  moral  judgment  must  be  ap- 
pealed to. 

If  we  wish  to  secure  development  in  any  direction,  specific 
exercise  and  nourishment  must  enter  into  the  course  of  educa- 
tion. To  stint  in  any  direction  is  to  dwarf  growth  in  that 
particular,  to  overemphasize  in  a  given  direction  is  to  pro- 
duce abnormality  or  arrest  of  development.  Excessive  cul- 
ture of  physical  powers  and  disregard  for  the  intellectual  and 
moral  growth  produces  the  brute;  excessive  intellectual  cul- 
ture alone  develops  the  logician;  while  excessive  cultivation 
of  the  emotions  without  due  balance  in  other  qualities  pro- 
duces sickly  sentimentalism  with  blind,  ungovernable  pas- 
sion. Many  people  are  now  frankly  sceptical  of  the  idea 
that  education  means  merely  mental  gymnastics  and  are  de- 
manding that  pupils  be  trained  for  specific  situations  in  life. 
In  order  to  do  this  the  curriculum  must  be  so  broadened  and 
enriched  that  the  instinctive  potentialities  will  be  developed 
and  utilized  in  the  best  interest  of  society. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  How  did  the  theory  of  formal  discipline  arise?  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  teachers  developed  the  theory  and  laymen  challenged  it.  2. 
To  what  extent  do  teachers  apparently  believe  in  formal  discipline?  3. 
Do  laymen  apparently  believe  in  formal  discipline?  4.  Suggest  an  ex- 
periment to  test  the  theory.  5.  Very  few  of  the  specific  facts  learned  in 
college  are  used  directly  in  after-life.  How  then  can  a  disbeliever  in  the 
transfer  effects  of  study  recommend  a  college  education?     6.  If  the  ex- 


THE  TRANSFER   OF  TRAINING  341 

tremists'  contentions  regarding  transfer  effects  were  true,  would  it  be  scien- 
tific to  have  pupils  study  grammar  as  a  means  of  developing  ideals  of  good 
citizenship?  7.  In  every-day  life  do  people  with  "common  sense"  exercise 
on  one  thing  in  order  to  learn  to  do  something  else  ?  8.  What  effect  does 
a  belief  or  a  disbelief  in  the  theory  have  upon  the  making  of  the  school 
curriculum?  Are  such  effects  observable  in  present-day  curricula?  9. 
On  what  basis  would  you  justify  the  high-school  study  of  algebra,  Latin? 
10.  What  should  be  the  basis  for  the  selection  of  any  subjects  or  topics  in 
a  curriculum?  11.  How  can  the  pupil  be  helped  to  develop  habits  of  ac- 
curacy, neatness,  punctuality,  truthfulness,  good  workmanship? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Bolton,  Principles  of  Education,  chap.  XXVIII. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chap.  XIII. 

3.  Colvin,  The  Learning  Process,  chap.  XIV. 

4.  Heck,  Formal  Discipline.     Entire  book. 

5.  James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  vol.  I,  chap.  XVI. 

6.  Judd,  The  Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects,  chap.  XVII. 

7.  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  chap.  XIII. 

8.  Thorndike,  Principles  of  Teaching,  chap.  XV. 

9.  Woodworth,  Psychology:  A  Study  of  Mental  Life,  p.  316. 


PART  IF 

MEASUREMENT  IN  EDUCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 


CHAPTER  XIX 
MEASURING  MENTAL  ABILITY 

Beginnings  of  the  Movement. — During  the  last  decade  a 
great  deal  of  interest  has  been  developed  in  connection  with 
methods  of  measuring  mental  ability.  It  is  very  important 
in  the  classification  of  pupils  in  school  and  in  vocational 
guidance  and  placement. 

The  first  real  attempt  to  develop  a  scale  for  measuring 
mental  ability  was  made  by  Binet  in  1904  for  the  purpose  of 
separating  the  feeble-minded  from  normal  persons.  In  that 
year  an  educational  regulation  in  Paris  required  that  the 
mentally  defective  in  the  schools  be  discovered.  Binet  tested 
several  average  children  of  each  age,  and  then  standardized 
the  tests  of  ability  for  each  age.  The  tests  were  published  in 
1905  in  the  V Annee  Psychologique.  They  were  revised  in 
1908  and  again  in  191 1.  From  that  time  they  have  been 
widely  used. 

While  low-grade  feeble-mindedness  is  readily  distinguish- 
able there  are  many  border-line  cases  that  are  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish. It  is  also  true  that  during  the  earlier  years  of  child- 
hood it  is  hard  to  determine  whether  a  given  child  is  merely 
backward  from  lack  of  training  or  really  subnormal  in  intelli- 
gence. Terman  says  that  even  teachers  are  apt  to  confuse 
real  intelligence  with  facility  in  reading,  capacity  for  mem- 
orizing, and  are  "deceived  by  a  sprightly  attitude,  a  sympa- 
thetic expression,  a  glance  of  the  eye,  or  a  chance  *bump* 
on  the  head."     {The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  p.  31.) 

Binet  tried  to  devise  questions  and  exercises  which  would 
call  for  intelligence  rather  than  merely  information  in  giving 
the  answer.  To  arrange  tests  that  will  do  that  is  a  difficult 
thing.  The  Binet  tests  did  not  fully  accomplish  that,  as  will 
be  seen  by  examining  the  tests.     A  great  many  investigators 

345 


346    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

have  studied  the  tests,  modified  them  and  much  improved 
them,  but  even  now  they  are  far  from  perfect.  However, 
they  look  in  the  right  direction. 

Doctor  Kuhlmann  (/'The  Present  Status  of  the  Binet  and 
Simon  Tests  of  the  InteUigence  of  Children,"  Journal  oj 
Psycho- Asthenics,  vol.  XVI,  No.  3,  1912),  says  of  the  Binet 
tests  that 

The  tests  are  the  first  of  their  kind  that  have  ever  been  offered  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  the  degree  of  intelligence  of  children  in 
terms  of  mental  ages.  They  aim  to  and  do  accomplish  much  more 
than  anything  we  have  had  heretofore.  For  this  reason  they  have 
become  at  once  widely  popular.  They  have  been  used  in  many  public 
schools  throughout  this  country  and  abroad,  and  in  a  number  of  schools 
for  defective  children,  reformatories  and  prisons  for  the  practical  pur- 
poses of  grading  intelligence. 

The  essential  features  to  be  noted  in  the  Binet  tests  and 
their  use  is:  (i)  There  is  a  set  of  questions  or  directions  for 
each  age  in  which  the  child  is  asked  to  give  some  information, 
some  judgment,  or  to  do  something.  (2)  These  exercises  have 
been  given  so  many  times  and  the  results  so  carefully  recorded 
and  studied  that  it  is  known  just  how  many  of  the  exercises 
for  a  given  age  a  child  of  that  age  will  answer  correctly.  (3) 
If  a  child  of  a  given  age  answers  correctly  the  average  num- 
ber of  exercises  for  that  age  the  child  is  considered  normal. 

(4)  If  a  child  of  a  given  age  fails  to  answer  correctly  an  aver- 
age number  of  exercises  for  his  age,  but  can  answer  all  for  the 
next  year  below,  he  is  judged  to  be  mentally  the  year  below. 

(5)  If  he  can  answer  correctly  an  average  number  of  exer- 
cises for  a  higher  age  he  is  assigned  the  higher  mental  age. 

Because  of  the  amount  of  space  it  would  require  to  repro- 
duce all  of  the  Binet  tests,  only  a  synopsis  and  typical  illus- 
trations are  given  here.  They  have  been  considerably  re- 
vised, amplified,  and  improved,  and  those  who  are  interested 
should  read  Terman's  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence.  He 
gives  there  an  extended  and  carefully  selected  bibliography, 
which  will  enable  one  to  do  more  exhaustive  reading. 

Synopsis  of  the  Binet-Simon  Tests. — ^The  following  Is  a 


MEASURING   MENTAL  ABILITY  347 

very  brief  statement  of  the  nature  of  the  fifty-four  tests  in 
the  191 1  revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests.  The  statement 
is  taken  verbatim  from  the  authorized  translation  made  by 
Doctor  Clara  Harrison  Town  {A  Method  of  Measuring  the 
Development  of  the  Intelligence  of  Young  Children,  191 3.) 

The  series  of  tests  used  in  the  method,  grouped  according 
to  age,  is  as  follows: 

Three  Years 

Shows  nose,  eyes,  and  mouth. 
Repeats  two  digits. 
Enumerates  objects  in  a  picture. 
Gives  family  name. 
Repeats  a  sentence  of  six  syllables. 

Four  Years 
Gives  own  sex. 

Names  key,  knife,  and  penny. 
Repeats  three  digits. 
Compares  two  lines. 

Five  Years 

Compares  two  weights. 

Copies  a  square. 

Repeats  a  sentence  of  ten  syllables. 

Counts  four  pennies. 

Game  of  patience  with  two  pieces. 

Six  Years 

Distinguishes  between  morning  and  afternoon. 

Defines  in  terms  of  use. 

Copies  a  lozenge. 

Counts  thirteen  pennies. 

Compares  faces  from  the  aesthetic  point  of  view. 

Seven  Years 

Right  hand;  left  ear. 

Describes  a  picture. 

Executes  three  commissions. 

Gives  value  of  nine  sous,  three  of  which  are  double. 

Names  four  colors. 


348        EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Eight  Years 

Compares  two  remembered  objects. 
Counts  from  20  to  o. 
Indicates  omissions  in  pictures. 
Gives  day  and  date. 
Repeats  five  digits. 

Nine  Years 

Gives  change  from  twenty  sous. 
Defines  in  terms  superior  to  use. 
Recognizes  all  the  pieces  of  our  money. 
Enumerates  the  months. 
Understands  easy  questions. 

Ten  Years 

Arranges  five  weights. 

Copies  drawings  from  memory. 

Criticises  absurd  statements. 

Understands  difiicult  questions. 

Uses  three  given  words  in  two  sentences. 

Twelve  Years 

Resists  suggestion  (length  of  lines). 

Composes  one  sentence  containing  three  given  words. 

Says  more  than  sixty  words  in  three  minutes. 

Defines  abstract  terms. 

Discovers  the  sense  of  a  sentence  the  words  of  which  are  mixed. 

Fifteen  Years 
Repeats  seven  digits. 
Gives  three  rhymes. 

Repeats  a  sentence  of  twenty-six  syllables. 
Interprets  a  picture. 
Solves  a  problem  from  several  facts. 

Adult 

Solves  the  paper-cutting  test. 

Rearranges  a  triangle. 

Gives  differences  in  meanings  of  abstract  terms. 

Solves  the  question  of  the  President. 

Gives  the  resume  of  the  thought  of  Hervieu. 


MEASURING   MENTAL  ABILITY  349 

Illustrations  of  the  Binet-Simon  Tests. — The  Binet  tests 
(191 1  revision)  contain  fifty-four  different  tests,  intended  to 
be  graded,  so  that  the  average  child  of  a  given  calendar  age 
can  answer  reasonably  the  majority  of  questions  for  that  age. 
The  following  are  samples  of  the  tests: 

Age  3:  a.  The  child  is  shown  a  picture  of  a  man  and  a  little  boy 
drawing  a  cart  loaded  with  various  objects.  The  child  is  asked:  "What 
is  this?"  To  be  counted  correct,  at  least  two  objects  in  the  picture 
must  be  mentioned. 

b.  Tell  your  name  (including  surname). 

c.  Point  to  your  nose,  eyes,  mouth. 

d.  Two  digits  are  uttered  by  the  examiner,  and  the  child  is  asked  to 
repeat  them. 

e.  Repeat  after  the  examiner  "It  is  cold.     I'm  hungry." 
Age  4:  a.  Which  of  two  lines  (shown)  is  the  longer? 

b.  Are  you  a  little  boy  or  a  little  girl? 

c.  Is  asked  to  name  several  objects,  as  a  knife,  a  key,  a  penny,  etc. 

d.  Three  digits  are  uttered  by  the  examiner,  and  the  child  is  asked 
to  repeat  them. 

Age  9:  a.  What  is  a  fork?  What  is  a  table?  What  is  a  chair? 
What  is  a  horse?  (If  the  child  says  a  chair  is  "a  seat,"  "four  legs,"  or 
"furniture,"  etc.,  the  answer  is  to  be  accepted.) 

b.  The  child  is  to  make  change  for  a  quarter  when  six  cents'  worth 
are  bought  in  playing  store. 

c.  "If  you  have  missed  a  train,  what  must  you  do?  If  you  have 
been  struck  by  a  playmate  (or  friend)  who  did  not  mean  to  do  it,  what 
must  you  do?  If  you  have  broken  something  belonging  to  some  one 
else,  what  must  you  do?" 

Terman's  Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Tests. — ^Terman  of 
Stanford  has  revised  the  Binet  scale  by  adding  to  and  modify- 
ing the  tests  made  by  Binet.  By  testing  hundreds  of  children 
Terman  has  determined  norms  of  what  children  of  a  given 
age  can  do.  He  says  {The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  p.  53) : 
"A  correct  scale  must  cause  the  average  child  of  5  years 
to  test  exactly  at  5,  the  average  child  at  6  to  test  exactly  at 
6,  etc."  He  has  improved  the  tests  more  than  any  one 
else. 

In  giving  the  examination  to  a  child,  begin  with  the  lowest 


350    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

age  and  go  up  the  scale  as  far  as  he  can  proceed  successfully. 
The  test  for  the  age  at  which  he  stops  represents  the  mental 
age  of  the  child.  It  is  quite  usual  to  speak  of  this  in  terms  of 
"The  Intelligence  Quotient"  (I.  Q.),  which  is  simply  the  men- 
tal age  as  revealed  by  the  tests  divided  by  the  child's  chrono- 
logical age.  For  example,  if  a  child  is  8  years  old  by  the 
almanac  and  tests  6  years  old,  his  I.  Q.  is  %,  or  usually  ex- 
pressed at  75.  If  the  child  is  6  years  old  chronologically  and 
tests  as  high  as  the  average  eight-year-old,  his  I.  Q.  is  %,  or 
usually  expressed  as  133,  the  decimal  point  being  omitted  in 
each  case.  Any  I.  Q.  below  90  represents  a  subnormal  con- 
dition, any  I.  Q.  above  no  represents  superiority.  Terman 
regards  I.  Q.'s  from  90-100  as  representing  average  intelligence, 
those  from  1 10-120  as  representing  superior  intelligence,  and 
from  120  to  140  as  very  superior.  Not  too  much  significance 
should  be  attached  if  the  variation  is  only  a  few  points.  If 
the  variation  is  from  10  to  20  points,  however,  it  may  be 
regarded  as  quite  significant. 

The  next  six  tests  are  selected  from  Terman.  Those  selected 
are  intended  to  be  typical  of  tests  that  really  test  intelligence 
and  not  merely  information.  The  Roman  numerals  refer  to 
the  age  of  the  child  who  can  answer  the  questions  if  normal  in 
development.  The  Arabic  figures  refer  to  the  number  of  the 
test. 

One  of  the  Terman  tests,  by  many  considered  among  the 
best,  is  the  vocabulary  test.  It  is  given  at  various  ages. 
From  a  standardized  list  of  words  the  child  is  asked  to  give 
definitions  of  as  many  words  as  possible  in  a  given  time.  Any 
simple  explanation  showing  comprehension  of  the  word  is 
accepted.  The  words  include  orange,  bonfire,  roar,  gown,  top, 
peculiarity,  coinage,  mosaic,  bewail,  disproportionate,  homun- 
culus,  cameo,  shagreen,  limpet,  conflict,  etc.  The  number  of 
words  defined  correctly  is  multiplied  by  180,  giving  the  ap- 
proximate vocabulary.  The  words  were  selected  by  taking 
the  last  word  of  every  sixth  column  in  an  18,000-word  dic- 
tionary. Thus,  a  child  who  defines  25  words  correctly  has  a 
vocabulary  of  4,500  words. 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  351 

The  following  are  the  standards  for  different  years,  as  determined 
by  the  vocabulary  reached  by  60  to  65  per  cent  of  the  subjects  of  the 
various  mental  levels: 

8  years 20  words vocabulary    3,600 

10  years 30  words vocabulary    5,400 

12  years 40  words vocabulary    7,200 

14  years 50  words vocabulary    9,000 

Average  adult 65  words vocabulary  11,700 

Superior  adult 75  words vocabulary  13,500 

Although  the  form  of  the  definition  is  significant,  it  is  not  taken  into 
consideration  in  scoring.  The  test  is  intended  to  explore  the  range  of 
ideas  rather  than  the  evolution  of  thought  forms.  When  it  is  evident 
that  the  child  has  one  fairly  correct  meaning  for  a  word,  he  is  given  full 
credit  for  it,  however  poorly  the  definition  may  have  been  stated. 
(Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  p.  226.) 

Another  test  by  Terman  for  the  tenth  year  consists  in  hav- 
ing the  child  say  as  many  words  as  he  can  think  of  in  three 
minutes.  The  test  is  considered  passed  If  sixty  words,  not  In- 
cluding repetitions,  are  given. 

VIII,  I.  The  ball-and-field  test.  (Score  2,  inferior  plan.) 
Procedure.  Draw  a  circle  about  two  and  one-half  inches  in  diam- 
eter, leaving  a  small  gap  in  the  side  next  the  child.  Say:  "Let  us  sup- 
pose that  your  baseball  has  been  lost  in  this  round  field.  You  have 
no  idea  what  part  of  the  field  it  is  in.  You  don't  know  what  direction 
it  came  from,  how  it  got  there,  or  with  what  force  it  came.  All  you 
know  is  that  the  ball  is  lost  somewhere  in  the  field.  Now,  take  this 
pencil  and  mark  out  a  path  to  show  me  how  you  would  hunt  for  the 
ball  so  as  to  be  sure  not  to  miss  it.  Begin  at  the  gate  and  show  me 
what  path  you  would  take." 

Give  the  instructions  always  as  worded  above.  Avoid  using  an 
expression  like  "Show  me  how  you  would  walk  around  in  the  field"; 
the  word  around  might  suggest  a  circular  path.  (Terman,  The  Mea- 
surement oj  Intelligence,  chap.  XIV,  p.  210.) 

VIII,  4.     Give  similarities;  two  things. 

Procedure.  Say  to  the  child:  "I  am  going  to  name  two  things  which 
are  alike  in  some  way,  and  I  want  you  to  tell  me  how  they  are  alike. 
Wood  and  coal:  in  what  way  are  they  alike?"  Proceed  in  the  same 
manner  with: 

An  apple  and  a  peach. 
Iron  and  silver. 
A  ship  and  an  automobile. 
(Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  chap.  XIV,  p.  217.) 


352    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

XIV,  5.     Arithmetical  Reasoning. 

Procedure.  The  following  problems,  printed  in  clear  type,  are  shown 
one  at  a  time  to  the  subject,  who  reads  each  problem  aloud  and  (with 
the  printed  problem  still  before  him)  finds  the  answer  without  the  use 
of  pencil  or  paper. 

{a)  If  a  man's  salary  is  $20  a  week  and  he  spends  $14  a  week,  how 
long  will  it  take  him  to  save  $300? 

{h)  If  2  pencils  cost  5  cents,  how  many  pencils  can  you  buy  for  50 
cents  ? 

{c)   At  15  cents  a  yard,  how  much  will  7  feet  of  cloth  cost? 

Only  one  minute  is  allowed  for  each  problem,  but  nothing  is  said 
about  hurrying.  While  one  problem  is  being  solved,  the  others  should 
be  hidden  from  view.  It  is  not  permissible,  if  the  subject  gives  an 
incorrect  answer,  to  ask  him  to  solve  the  problem  again.  The  follow- 
ing exception,  however,  is  made  to  this  rule:  If  the  answer  given  to 
the  third  problem  indicates  that  the  word  yard  has  been  read  as  feet, 
the  subject  is  asked  to  read  the  problem  through  again  carefully  (aloud) 
and  to  tell  how  he  solved  it.  No  further  help  of  any  kind  may  be 
given. 

Scoring.  Two  of  the  three  problems  must  be  solved  correctly  within 
the  minute  allotted  to  each.  No  credit  is  allowed  for  correct  method 
if  the  answer  is  wrong. 

(Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  chap.  XVIII,  p.  319.  The 
selections  from  Terman  are  used  by  permission  of  and  by  special  ar- 
rangement with  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  the  authorized  pub- 
lishers.) 

XIV,  6.     Reversing  hands  of  clock. 

Procedure.  Say  to  the  subject:  "Suppose  it  is  six-twenty-two 
o'clock,  that  is,  twenty-two  minutes  after  six;  can  you  see  in  your 
mind  where  the  large  hand  would  be  and  where  the  small  hand  would 
be?"  Subjects  of  12  to  14  year  intelligence  practically  always  answer 
this  in  the  affirmative.  Then  continue:  "Now,  suppose  the  two  hands 
of  the  clock  were  to  trade  places,  so  that  the  large  hand  takes  the  place 
where  the  small  hand  was  and  the  small  hand  takes  the  place  where 
the  large  hand  was.     What  time  would  it  then  be?" 

Repeat  the  test  with  the  hands  at  8:10  (10  minutes  after  8),  and 
again  with  the  hands  at  2:46  (14  minutes  before  3). 

The  subject  is  not  allowed  to  look  at  a  clock  or  watch  or  to  aid  himself 
by  drawing,  but  must  work  out  the  problem  mentally.  As  a  rule  the 
answer  is  given  within  a  few  seconds,  or  not  at  all.  If  an  answer  is  not 
forthcoming  within  two  minutes  the  score  is  failure. 

Scoring.  The  test  is  passed  if  two  of  the  three  problems  are  solved 
within  the  following  range  of  accuracy:  the  first  solution  is  considered 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  353 

correct  if  the  answer  falls  between  4: 30  and  4:35,  inclusive;  the  second 
if  the  answer  falls  between  i :  40  and  i  :45,  and  the  third  if  the  answer 
falls  between  9:10  and  9:15. 

(Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  chap.  XVIII,  p.  321.  The 
selections  from  Terman  are  used  by  permission  of  and  by  special  ar- 
rangement with  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  the  authorized  pub- 
lishers.) 

The  Army  **  Alpha  "  Tests. — The  following  extracts  from 
the  army  ''alpha"  tests  are  copied,  with  permission,  from  the 
army  tests  used  so  extensively  during  the  war.  The  "alpha" 
test,  from  which  the  selections  are  taken,  is  the  most  widely 
known.  This  was  given  to  over  2,000,000  men  during  the 
war,  and  has  been  repeated  thousands  of  times  since  in  courses 
in  mental  measurement,  in  college  entrance  examinations,  and 
to  some  extent  in  vocational  guidance.  No  other  test  is  there- 
fore so  well  standardized.  The  great  majority  of  all  other 
tests  constructed  since  have  incorporated  many  of  its  fea- 
tures. Practically  all  use  a  combination  of  the  Binet-Simon 
and  the  army  alpha. 

Form  6,  Group  Examination  Alpha,  Feb.  8,  1918* 

Test  2 

Get  the  answers  to  these  examples  as  quickly  as  you  can.  Use  the 
side  of  this  page  to  figure  on  if  you  need  to. 

1.  How  many  are  40  guns  and  6  guns? Answer  ( 

2.  If  you  save  $6  a  month  for  5  months,  how  much 

will  you  save  ? Answer  ( 

3.  If  32  men  are  divided  into  squads  of  8,  how  many 

squads  will  there  be  ? Answer  ( 

4.  Mike  had  1 1  cigars.     He  bought  3  more  and  then 

smoked  6.     How  many  cigars  did  he  have 

left  ? Answer  ( 

5.  A  company  advanced  6  miles  and  retreated  3 

miles.     How  far  was  it  then  from  its  first  po- 
sition ? Answer  ( 

15.  A  ship  has  provisions  to  last  her  crew  of  600  men 

6  months.     How  long  would  it  last  800  men?  ^W5wer  ( 

*  In  the  following  excerpts  from  various  tests  it  has  not  always  been 
possible  to  reproduce  exactly  the  original  arrangement  and  type. 


354    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

20.  A  commission  house  which  had  already  supplied 
1,897  barrels  of  apples  to  a  cantonment  de- 
livered the  remainder  of  its  stock  to  28  mess 
halls.  Of  this  remainder  each  mess  hall  re- 
ceived 47  barrels.  What  was  the  total  num- 
ber of  barrels  supplied  ? Answer  (  ) 

Test  3 

This  is  a  test  of  common  sense.  Below  are  sixteen  questions. 
Three  answers  are  given  to  each  question.  You  are  to  look  at  the 
answers  carefully;  then  make  a  cross  in  the  square  before  the  best 
answer  to  each  question. 

1.  If  plants  are  dying  for  lack  of  rain,  you  should 
n  water  them 

n  ask  a  florist's  advice 

n  put  fertilizer  around  them 

2.  A  house  is  better  than  a  tent,  because 
n  it  costs  more 

D  it  is  more  comfortable 
n  it  is  made  of  wood 
10.  Why  should  all  parents  be  made  to  send  their  children  to  school? 
Because 
n  it  prepares  them  for  adult  life 
n  it  keeps  them  out  of  mischief 
n  they  are  too  young  to  work 
16.  Why  do  some  men  who  could  afford  to  own  a  house  live  in  a  rented 
one?     Because 
n  they  don't  have  to  pay  taxes 
n  they  don't  have  to  buy  a  rented  house 

D  they  can  make  more  by  investing  the  money  the  house  would 
cost 

Test  4 

If  the  two  words  of  a  pair  mean  the  same  or  nearly  the  same,  draw 
a  line  under  same.  If  they  mean  the  opposite  or  nearly  the  opposite, 
draw  a  line  under  opposite.     If  you  cannot  be  sure,  guess. 

I.  cold — hot same — opposite  i 

'  2.  long — short same — opposite  2 

3.  bare — naked same — opposite  3 

4.  joy — happiness same — opposite  4 

5.  find — lose same — opposite       5 

16.  knave — villain same — opposite     16 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  355 

17.  null — void same — opposite  17 

18.  wax — wane same — opposite  18 

19.  adversary — colleague same — opposite  19 

20.  altruistic — egotistic same — opposite  20 

36.  suavity — asperity same — opposite  36 

37.  perfunctory — meticulous same — opposite  37 

38.  lugubrious — maudlin same — opposite  38 

39.  desuetude — disuse same — opposite  39 

40.  adventitious — accidental same — opposite  40 

Test  5 

The  words  A  EATS  COW  GRASS  in  that  order  are  mixed  up  and 
don't  make  a  sentence;  but  they  would  make  a  sentence  if  put  in  the 
right  order— A  COW  EATS  GRASS— and  this  statement  is  true. 

Again,  the  words  HORSES  FEATHERS  HAVE  ALL  would  make 
a  sentence  if  put  in  the  order  ALL  HORSES  HAVE  FEATHERS, 
but  this  statement  is  false. 

Below  are  twenty-four  mixed-up  sentences.  Some  of  them  are 
true  and  some  are  false.  When  I  say  "go,"  take  these  sentences  one 
at  a  time.  Think  what  each  would  say  if  the  words  were  straightened 
out,  but  don't  write  them  yourself.  Then,  if  what  it  would  say  is  true, 
draw  a  line  under  the  word  true  ;  if  what  it  would  say  is  false,  draw  a 
line  under  the  word  false.  If  you  cannot  be  sure,  guess.  Begin  with 
No.  I  and  work  right  down  the  page  until  time  is  called. 

1.  cows  milk  give true — false  i 

2.  write  are  with  to  pencils true — false  2 

3.  are  and  apples  long  thin true — false  3 

4.  east  the  in  rises  sun  the true — false  4 

5.  months  warmest  are  summer  the true — false  5 

15.  Washington  canal  1776  Panama  the  in  built true — false  15 

24.  inflict  men  pain  needless  cruel  sometimes true — false  24 


Test  6 

Look  at  each  row  of  numbers  below,  and  on  the  two  dotted  lines 
write  the  two  numbers  that  should  come  next. 


2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

I 

4 

9 

16 

25 

36 

21 

18 

16 

15 

12 

10 

4 

8 

10 

20 

22 

44 

356         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Test  7 

In  each  of  the  lines  below,  the  first  two  words  are  related  to  each 
other  in  some  way.  What  you  are  to  do  in  each  line  is  to  see  what 
the  relation  is  between  the  first  two  words,  and  underline  the  word  in 
heavy  type  that  is  related  in  the  same  way  to  the  third  word.  Begin 
with  No.  I  and  mark  as  many  sets  as  you  can  before  time  is  called. 

1.  dog — bark::  cat — chair  mew  fire  house i 

2.  foot — man::  hoof — com  tree  cow  hoe : 2 

3.  dog — puppy::  cat — kitten  dog  tiger  horse 3 

4.  wash — face::  sweep — clean  broom  floor  straw 4 

5.  door — house::  gate — swing  hinges  yard  latch 5 

21.  cellar — attic::  bottom — well  tub  top  house 21 

22.  man — arm::  tree — shrub  limb  flower  bark 22 

23.  suitcase — clothing::  purse — purchase  money  string  stolen 23 

24.  knitting — girls::  carpentry — trade  houses  boys  lumber 24 

25.  arteries — body::  railroads — coimtry  train  crossing  accident 25 

36.  order — confusion::  peace — part  treaty  war  enemy 36 

37.  education — ignorance::  wealth — poverty  riches  health  comfort  37 

38.  10 — 100::  1000 — money  loooo  20000  wealth 38 

39.  imitate — copy::  invent — study  Edison  machine  originate 39 

40.  historian — facts::  novelist — fiction  Dickens  writer  book 40 

Test  8 

In  each  of  the  sentences  below  you  have  four  choices  for  the  last 
word.  Only  one  of  them  is  correct.  In  each  sentence  draw  a  line 
under  the  one  of  these  four  words  which  makes  the  truest  sentence. 
If  you  cannot  be  sure,  guess. 

1.  Boston  is  in  Connecticut  Rhode  Island  Maine  Massachusetts  i 

2.  Euchre  is  played  with  dice  rackets  cards  pins 2 

3.  The  Arabian  is  a  kind  of  horse  goat  cow  sheep 3 

4.  The  most  prominent  industry  of  Milwaukee  is  fish  brewing 

flour  automobiles 4 

5.  Turquoise  is  usually  yellow  red  green  blue $ 

21.  The  cutlass  is  a  kind  of  sword  musket  cannon  pistol 21 

22.  The   Corona  is  a  kind  of  phonograph  multigraph  adding- 

machine  typewriter 22 

23.  Indigo  is  a  food  drink  color  fabric 23 

24.  The  xylophone  is  used  in  lithography  music  stenography  book- 

binding      24 

25.  Madras  is  a  drink  fabric  food  dance 25 

36.  The  Battle  of  Lexington  was  fought  in  1620  1775  1812  1864     36 

37.  The  kilowatt  is  used  in  measuring  rainfall  wind  power  elec- 

tricity water-power 37 


MEASURING   MENTAL  ABILITY  357 

38.  The  Buick  car  is  made  in  Toledo  Flint  Buffalo  Detroit ....     38 

39.  Among  the  allies  of  Germany  is  Bulgaria  Norway  Rumania 

Portugal 39 

40.  An  eight-sided  figure  is  called  a  trapezium  scholium  parallelo- 

gram octagon 40 

Yerkes*s  Point  Scale. — ^Various  other  modifications  have 
been  suggested.  Among  the  most  notable  are  those  of  Pint- 
ner  and  Yerkes.  Pintner  believed  that  too  much  depended 
upon  the  use  of  language,  and  his  tests  consist  chiefly  of  at- 
tempts to  do  something,  as,  for  example,  putting  together  the 
parts  of  the  form-board  and  dissected  pictures.  (Pintner, 
Rudolf,  and  Paterson,  Donald:  A  Scale  of  Performance  Tests f 
D.  Appleton,  191 7.)  Yerkes  used  many  of  the  Binet  tests, 
but  assigned  a  given  number  of  points  or  credits  to  the  answers 
or  actions.  This  makes  a  rather  more  accurate  evaluation 
than  the  "all  or  none"  method  of  Binet.  (Yerkes,  Robert  M., 
Bridges,  James  W.,  and  Hardwick,  Rose  S.:  A  Poifit  Scale  for 
Measuring  Mental  Ability,  Warwick  and  York,  191 5.)  The 
army  intelligence  tests  and  most  of  the  current  intelligence 
tests  follow  largely  the  "point-scale"  method. 

The  National  Intelligence  Tests. — One  of  the  latest  sets  of 
group  intelligence  tests  is  the  National  Intelligence  Tests 
(World  Book  Company,  1920),  prepared  by  a  research  council 
composed  of  Doctor  Melvin  E.  Haggerty,  University  of  Min- 
nesota, Doctor  Lewis  M.  Terman,  Stanford  University,  Doc- 
tor Edward  L.  Thorndike,  Columbia  University,  Doctor  Guy 
M.  Whipple,  University  of  Pittsburgh,  and  Doctor  Robert  M. 
Yerkes,  chairman,  Harvard  University.  This  research  coun- 
cil was  selected  by  the  General  Education  Board  in  March, 
1919.  The  importance  and  magnitude  of  their  task  is  indi- 
cated by  the  fact  that  they  were  granted  $25,000  with  which 
to  prepare  the  tests  for  the  measurement  of  the  intelligence  of 
school  children. 

The  tests  include  two  groups  of  five  each. 

These  groups  are  designated  Scale  A  and  Scale  B.  Scale  A  consists 
of  Test  I,  Arithmetical  Reasoning;  Test  2,  Sentence  Completion;  Test 
3,  Logical  Selection;  Test  4,  Same — Opposite;  Test  5,  Symbol-Digit. 


3S8         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Scale  B  consists  of  Test  i,  Computation;  Test  2,  Information;  Test  3, 
Vocabulary;  Test  4,  Analogies;  Test  5,  Comparison.  Materials  were 
simultaneously  prepared  by  various  members  of  the  committee  for 
five  alternative  forms  of  each  test.  These  several  forms  of  the  tests 
were  carefully  equalized  and  methods  of  scoring  determined. 

The  ten  tests  are  arranged  in  two  groups,  in  order  that  the  period 
of  examination  may  not  greatly  exceed  thirty  minutes.  Either 
Scale  A  or  Scale  B  may  be  used  alone,  and  either  will  serve  as  a  con- 
venient method  for  the  rapid  survey  of  a  school  system ;  but  the  com- 
mittee recommends  that  both  scales  be  given  preferably  on  different 
days.  The  second  rating  then  may  be  used  as  a  check  on  the  first, 
and  serious  discrepancy  will  suggest  to  the  teacher  the  desirability  of 
individual  examination.  .  .  . 

The  scales  having  been  assembled  and  printed,  the  committee  was 
enabled  to  secure  tentative  norms  to  be  used  as  standards  for  com- 
parison of  scores  through  the  generous  co-operation  of  Messrs.  J. 
Freeman  Guy,  J.  L.  Stenquist,  and  Mrs.  Helen  T.  WooUey.  Miss 
Margaret  V.  Cobb  organized  and  directed  the  examinations  which 
were  made  in  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  equalizing  the  different 
forms  of  the  scales,  and  also  the  co-operative  examining  which  sup- 
plied the  data  for  norms.  In  addition  she  took  charge  for  the  com- 
mittee of  assembling,  editing,  and  printing  the  materials  for  the  sev- 
eral tests  in  their  various  forms,  and  in  the  numerous  other  ways  facili- 
tated the  preparation  of  the  methods  and  increased  their  serviceability. 

The  National  Intelligence  Tests  thus  prepared  are  primarily  an 
adaptation  for  school  purposes  of  the  group  intelligence  tests  used  in 
the  examination  of  recruits  in  the  United  States  army.  They  are 
planned  for  use  in  Grades  3  to  8,  and  with  pupils  entering  high  school. 
These  tests  may  be  successfully  conducted  and  scored  by  the  teacher 
or  supervisor  who  is  sufficiently  interested  to  secure  for  himself  the 
necessary  brief  instruction  and  training  in  their  use.  {National  Intelli- 
gence Tests:  Manual  of  Directions,  1920,  pp.  3-4.) 

Scale  B,  Form  i,  Edition  2. 

EXERCISE  I 

Do  this  work  in  arithmetic  as  quickly  as  you  can  without  making 
mistakes.  Try  each  example  as  you  come  to  it.  Look  carefully  at 
each  one  to  see  what  you  are  to  do. 

Begin  here      (i)  (2) 

Add  Multiply 

4  4X5  = 

2 


(3) 

Add 

(4) 
Subtract 

32 

13 

25 

19 

5 

MEASURING  MENTAL  ABILITY  359 


(5) 

Divide 

(6) 
Multiply 

5073 
9 

(7) 
Divide 

(8) 
Subtract 

II  -^  3  = 

37)  14282 

Yi  -  %  = 

(9) 
Divide 

^  -  5  = 

(10) 
Multiply 

ss^ys 
26 

EXERCISE  II 

j^        ,      f  Sheep  eat  mostly  nuts  grass  fruits  bread 
^      \  The  number  of  cents  in  a  dime  is  2  5  10  25 

In  each  sentence  draw  a  line  under  the  one  word  that  makes  the 
sentence  true. 

Begin  here 

1.  The  number  of  days  in  a  week  is  5  6  7  12 i 

2.  The  kitten  is  the  young  of  the  dog  cat  lion  sheep 2 

3 .  The  day  before  Thursday  is  Wednesday  Tuesday  Friday  Monday  3 

4.  Cheese  comes  from  butter  plants  eggs  milk 4 

5.  Leather  comes  from  cotton  wool  skins  bark 5 

Scale  B,  Form  i,  Edition  2. 
Test  2 

In  each  sentence  draw  a  line  under  the  one  word  that  makes  the 
sentence  true,  as  shown  in  the  samples. 

o        1      f  Sheep  eat  mostly  nuts  grass  fruits  bread 
amp  es  |  ^j^^  number  of  cents  in  a  dime  is  2  5  10  25 

Begin  here 

16.  The  incubator  is  useful  in  raising  cattle  chickens  corn  cotton     16 

17.  Boston  is  in  Connecticut  Maine  Massachusetts  Rhode  Island     17 

18.  A  State  famous  for  oranges  is  Alabama  California  Louisiana 

Texas 18 

19.  The  number  of  weeks  in  a  month  is  about  2468 19 

20.  Cambric  is  a  cloth  color  dance  food 20 

EXERCISE  III 

jj        ,     J  Can  cows  eat  ? Yes  No 

bamples  <  ^^  ^^^^^^  ^^.^P Yes  No 


36o        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 
Read  each  question  and  draw  a  line  under  the  right  answer. 

6.  Do  trees  ever  grow  on  moist  land  ? Yes  No 

7.  Are  newspapers  printed  in  churches? Yes  No 

8.  Is  stealing  a  proper  pastime  ? Yes  No 

9.  Are  steeples  commonly  found  in  barrels? Yes  No 

ID.  Is  furniture  usually  visible  ? Yes  No 

Test  3 

Draw  a  line  under  the  right  answer  to  each  question.     Do  as  many 
as  you  can. 

6.  Do  bears  have  legs  ? Yes  No 

7.  Do  daisies  bloom  in  meadows? Yes  No 

8.  Does  ice  make  water  warmer? Yes  No 

9.  Does  a  dollar  have  eyes  ? Yes  No 

10.  Is  red  a  color  ? Yes  No 


Test  4 

Read  carefully  the  first  three  words  in  each  line. 
last  four  and  draw  a  line  under  the  right  one. 


Then  read  the 


Samples 


shoe — foot hat — coat  nose  see  head 

sky — blue grass — grows  summer  green  tall 

bird — sing dog — tail  bark  walk  kennel 

bird — fly dog — tail  bark  walk  kennel 

dress — cloth . . .  hat — head  wear  band  straw 


Begin  here 

1.  finger — hand toe — box  foot  doll  coat i 

2.  cannon — shoots bell — rings  door  metal  maid 2 

3.  sweet — sugar sour — sweet  cake  vinegar  man 3 

4.  handle — hammer knob — key  room  shut  door 4 

5.  suitcase — clothing. .  .  .purse — purchase  money  string  stolen 5 

EXERCISE  V 


If  the  two  things  in  a  pair  are  the  same,  write  S  on  the  dotted  line 
between  them.  If  they  are  different,  write  D  on  the  dotted  line  be- 
tween them.     Do  each  one  as  you  come  to  it. 


^ rn^^ 


21059876 21059876 

Siegel  P.  D Seigel  P.  D. 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  361 

Standardized  College  Entrance  Examinations. — Intelligence 
tests  are  being  tried  in  various  universities  as  a  substitute  for 
or  supplement  to  entrance  examinations.  It  is  too  early  to 
say  how  successful  they  will  prove  to  be.  In  several  places, 
notably  Columbia  University,  they  are  reported  to  be  very 
promising.  Below  is  given  part  of  two  psychological  examina- 
tions that  have  been  devised  by  Thurstone,  in  the  Division  of 
Personnel  and  Psychology,  Carnegie  Institute  of  Technology. 
The  first  five  and  the  last  five  are  reproduced.  The  entire  ex- 
amination is  not  given  here  because  of  the  length. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION 

For  College  Freshmen  and  High-School  Seniors 

Part  A — Time  Limit:  20  Minutes 

Do  not  open  this  pamphlet  until  you  are  told  to  do  so  by  the  ex- 
aminer. This  is  a  test  to  see  how  quickly  and  accurately  you  can 
think.  The  result  of  the  test  will  be  used  by  your  advisers  in  order 
that  they  may  know  more  about  your  abilities.  On  the  inside  pages 
there  are  100  short  problems.  In  each  case  you  are  told  exactly  what 
to  do.  Notice  the  instructions  carefully.  You  may  use  the  margin 
for  figuring.  Do  not  ask  any  questions.  If  you  come  to  a  problem 
that  you  do  not  understand,  go  to  the  next  problem.  You  will  be 
given  only  twenty  minutes.  Solve  as  many  problems  as  you  can  in 
the  time  allowed.  Solve  the  problems  in  the  order  given.  Do  not 
skip  about  on  the  page.  Do  not  turn  this  page  until  you  are  told  to 
begin. 

1.  Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  logical  relation  to 

each   other    as    locomotive   and    train:    station      horse      hub 

baggage      buggy 
Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  logical  relation  to 

each  other  as  good  and  had:  taste     sweet      conduct      sour 

polite 
Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  logical  relation  to 

tai,ch.  othQx  2iS  flag  diXid  country :  cross     purgatory     Christianity 

Army     president 
Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  relation  to  each 

other  as  ear  and  hear:  eye     hair     blue     see     eyebrow 

2.  Look  at  the  following  row  of  figures  and  fill  in  the  two  blank  spaces: 

2     4     6     8     10     12      

Look  at  the  following  row  of  figures  and  fill  in  the  two  blank  spaces: 
172737     


362    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Look  at  the  following  row  of  figures  and  fill  in  the  two  blank 
spaces : 
123456     

3.  Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  relation  to  each  other 

as  palace  and  King:  hut     peasant     barn     farm     city 

4.  If  the  conclusion  to  the  following  argument  is  true,  underline  true; 

if  it  is  false,  underline  false:  Brown  is  shorter  than  Smith. 
Jones  is  shorter  than  Brown.  Therefore  Jones  is  shorter  than 
Smith.     True.     False. 

5.  How  many  hours  will  it  take  a  truck  to  go  48  miles  at  the  rate  of 

four  miles  per  hour?    Answer:   hours. 

96.  Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  relation  to  each 

other  as  December  and  January:  last  first  least  worst 
month 

97.  On  the  blank  spaces  write  the  two  numbers  that  should  come  next: 

17     51     17     51     17     51      

98.  Underline  the  two  words  that  have  the  same  relation  to  each  other 

as  dress  and  woman:  neck     feathers     feet     bill     bird 

99.  If  the  conclusion  to  the  following  argument  is  true,  underline  true; 

if  it  is  false,  underline  false.  The  recent  panic  occurred  just 
after  the  president  announced  his  policy  regarding  corpora- 
tions in  interstate  commerce;  therefore  the  president  is  to 
blame  for  the  panic.  True.  False. 
100.  A  grocer  had  a  tank  holding  443^  gallons  of  oil.  He  drew  out 
1$%  gallons.  How  many  gallons  were  left  in  the  tank? 
Answer:   gallons. 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION 

For  College  Freshmen  and  High-School  Seniors 

1922  Edition — Time  Limit:  30  Minutes 

(Instructions  the  same  as  in  Part  A) 

1.  I  am  facing  north  and  turn  to  my  right.     In  which  direction  do 

I  turn?     North     South    East    West.     (Underline  the  cor- 
rect answer.) 

2.  Is  it  possible  for  any  number  to  be  larger  than  its  square?    Yes 

No.     (UnderHne  the  correct  answer.) 

4.  The  hands  of  a  clock  read  five  minutes  of  twelve.     What  time 

would  they  read  if  their  positions  were  reversed?    Answer.  .  . 

5.  Is  the  following  statement  logical  or  absurd?     Phyllis  was  born 

three  years  before  her  younger  sister,  Ruth.     Logical    Ab- 
surd.   (Underline  the  correct  answer.) 


MEASURING  MENTAL  ABILITY 


363 


10.  Which  of  the  following  words  would  look  the  same  in  a  mirror? 

Underline  it.         NOON        MOTTO        MADAM        TOOT 

ANNA      PEEP. 
14.  Jones  owes  Smith  one  hundred  dollars;  Smith  owes  Brown  one 

hundred  dollars.    The  two  debts  will  be  settled  if  Jones  pays 

one   hundred   dollars   to   Brown.     True     False.      (Underline 

the  correct  answer.) 


A 


24.  The  piece  of  paper  A  is  folded  to  look  like  B,  again  to  look  like  C, 
and  again  to  look  Hke  D.  Then  a  hole  is  cut  at  a  position 
indicated  in  D.  Draw  the  holes  in  A  to  show  where  they 
would  be  if  the  paper  were  unfolded. 

31.  How  many  cubes  would  be  needed  to  build  this  figure? 


48.  What  is  the  smallest  number  of  coins  that  can  be  used  to  give  a 
man  forty-four  cents  ? 

50.  A  tank  of  water  is  being  drained  at  the  rate  of  2  cu.  ft.  per  second 
and  supplied  at  the  rate  of  ^2  cu.  ft.  per  second.  After  two 
minutes  there  are  50  cu.  ft.  of  water  in  the  tank.    How  much 

water  was  in  the  tank  before  it  was  drained  ?     Answer 

cu.  ft. 


364        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

51.  Fill  in  the  blanks  in  the  following  sentence.    Write  only  one  word 

on  a  blank 

The  knowledge  of use  fire  is ....  of ... .  important 

things  known  by ... .  but  unknown ....  animals. 

52.  Fill  in  the  blanks  in  the  following: 

X  is  greater  than  Y  therefore  Z  is than  S 

X  is  less  than  Z                          Y  is . . . .  than  Z 
Y  is  greater  than  S  X  is than  S 

53.  If  one  word  in  the  following  is  crossed  out  the  others  can  be  ar- 

ranged to  form  a  logical  sentence.  Cross  out  that  word, 
old  is  tired  hard  boy  because  the  very  he  worked  man  has 
56.  Is  the  following  statement  logical  or  absurd?  The  time  of  the 
sun's  rising  seemed  earlier  because  the  hands  of  the  clock  had 
been  turned  back  an  hour.  Logical.  Absurd.  (Underline 
the  correct  answer.) 

Uses  of  Intelligence  Tests. — The  most  recent  and  greatest 
emphasis  that  has  been  placed  upon  tests  of  mental  ability  as 
a  guide  to  vocational  placement  of  individuals  was  in  the 
army.  General  intelligence  tests  have  been  very  carefully 
worked  out  for  the  purpose  of  testing  large  groups  and  of  mak- 
ing a  preliminary  sorting.  In  addition  to  those  designed  for 
large  groups  special  tests  have  been  arranged  to  further  test 
the  individuals  in  the  groups  determined  by  means  of  the 
first  tests.  Special  trade  tests  designed  to  test  the  proficiency 
in  a  large  variety  of  trades  have  also  been  prepared  and  given 
to  thousands  of  men  in  the  army. 

Uses  in  Schools. — A.  Perhaps  the  most  valuable  possibility  arising 
from  the  use  of  intelligence  tests  in  schools  is  that  of  classifying  pupils 
in  accordance  with  their  natural  intelligence,  or  ability  to  learn.  The 
variation  in  this  respect  among  the  children  of  any  grade  is  extraordi- 
narily great;  for  instance,  in  almost  any  fifth  grade  (unless  the  children 
have  been  specially  selected)  there  may  be  found  children  who  are  so 
bright  as  to  be  above  the  average  seventh-grade  child  in  intelligence, 
and  others  who  are  so  dull  as  to  be  below  the  average  third-grade  child 
in  intelligence.  It  is  obviously  impossible  to  teach  fractions,  for  in- 
stance, either  in  the  same  words  or  at  the  same  rate  to  children  so  very 
different  in  ability  and  degree  of  mental  development.  Wherever 
three  or  more  like  grades  exist  within  reasonable  distance  of  one  an- 
other, there  are  very  obvious  advantages  in  sorting  the  pupils  into 
three  or  more  intelligence  groups  and  advancing  each  group  at  its  own 
rate.     Group  intelligence  examination  affords  a  ready  and  fairly  relia- 


MEASURING   MENTAL  ABILITY  365 

ble  means  of  making  such  classification.  An  hour  given  to  the  ex- 
amination of  each  class,  and  six  or  eight  hours  of  the  teacher's  or 
examiner's  time  given  to  scoring  papers  and  recording  results,  will 
enable  any  principal  or  supervisor  to  divide  his  grades  in  this  way 
and  thus  to  decrease  appreciably  the  difl&culties  of  teachers  and  facili- 
tate the  progress  of  pupils. 

Where  it  is  impossible  systematically  to  classify  all  grades  according 
to  intelligence,  it  may  frequently  be  possible  to  establish  in  the  com- 
munity two  or  three  classes  for  gifted  children,  and  an  equal  number 
for  those  who  are  slow  but  not  sufficiently  backward  to  be  placed  in 
ungraded  classes  or  in  special  schools  for  defectives.  The  regular 
classes  in  this  way  may  be  relieved  of  extreme  cases  at  both  ends  of 
the  distribution,  leaving  them  more  homogeneous  and  easier  to  handle. 

B.  In  the  process  of  applying  group  intelligence  examinations  to  a 
new  class,  the  teacher  may  discover,  much  more  promptly  than  he 
otherwise  could,  some  of  the  physical  and  mental  peculiarities  or  ab- 
normalities of  the  children.  A  score  on  a  group  intelligence  examina- 
tion which  is  very  low  as  compared  with  the  age  standard  should 
always  result  in  inquiry  as  to  its  cause.  The  trouble  may  be  defective 
sight  or  hearing  rather  than  low  intelligence;  or  the  low  score  may 
indicate  a  psychopathic  condition  which  seriously  affects  the  child's 
school  work  and  his  progress.  Erratic  scores,  high  on  some  tests  but 
low  on  others,  also  indicate  the  need  of  individual  attention. 

C.  The  group  intelligence  examination  may  also  give  a  valuable 
indication  of  the  probable  causes  of  difficulty  with  unusual  and  trouble- 
some children — those  who  do  not  fit  into  the  school  routine.  Anything 
unusual  in  the  records  of  such  children  should  be  followed  by  careful 
individual  examination  for  confirmation  or  explanation.  In  many 
cases  a  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  the  child's  behavior  enables  the 
teacher  to  change  it  by  comparatively  simple  but  previously  un- 
thought-of  means. 

D.  Vocational  guidance,  not  to  specific  trades  or  professions,  but 
along  broad  lines  (for  instance,  to  a  profession  rather  than  a  trade  or 
to  unskilled  rather  than  skilled  labor),  may  be  given  with  greater  assur- 
ance when  the  results  of  an  intelligent  examination  are  known.  The 
objective  evidence,  even  when  it  merely  confirms  an  impression,  is 
valuable  because  impersonal  and  definite.  {National  Intelligence  Tests : 
Manual  of  Directions  for  Use  with  Scale  A  and  Scale  B,  All  Forms,  192 1, 
p.  27.) 

Value  of  the  Tests. — The  various  tests  are  generally  called 
intelligence  tests  and  are  designed  to  discover  grades  of  native 
mental  ability.  To  a  certain  extent  they  accomplish  that 
end.     However,  an  analysis  of  all  of  the  tests  thus  far  devised 


366 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


will  reveal  that  to  a  large  extent  they  are  tests  of  information 
or  training.  Of  course  there  is  probably  some  correlation  be- 
tween ability  and  the  possession  of  certain  information.  But 
it  is  perfectly  conceivable  that  a  highly  intelligent  person 
might  not  be  able  to  tell  where  the  Buick  automobile  is  man- 
ufactured, or  who  wrote  The  Scarlet  Letter j  whether  ''Country 


TEN  BEST"  PRIVATES 

TEN  POOREST"   PRIVATES. 


RATING    D- 


Intelligence  Grades  of    "Best  "  and  "  Poorest  "  Privates.    (Best  606; 
Poorest  583;  Total,  1,189.) 


Gentleman"  is  a  kind  of  wheat,  corn,  hay,  or  oats.  Persons 
of  rather  low  intelligence  might  be  able  to  give  the  correct 
answers.  Of  course,  in  all  probability  persons  of  low  intelli- 
gence would  not  be  in  possession  of  a  very  wide  range  of  in- 
formation. 

That  the  intelligence  tests  are  fairly  reliable  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  ratings  obtained  by  means  of  them  coincide 
very  closely  with  other  judgments  regarding  large  numbers  of 
men.     For  example,  sixty  company  commanders  were  each 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  367 

asked  to  indicate  their  ten  best  and  ten  poorest  privates. 
The  entire  companies  were  also  rated  by  the  intelligence  tests. 
The  ratings  were  indicated  by  the  letters  A,  B,  C,  etc.,  A 
being  the  highest  grade.  The  graph  accompanying  shows 
that  almost  none  of  the  poorest  received  a  grade  of  A,  while 
the  most  of  them  were  below  C,  ranking  D  and  D  — .  On  the 
other  hand,  of  those  considered  as  the  best,  the  majority  re- 
ceived a  grade  above  C,  about  20  per  cent  ranked  B,  15  per 
cent  A,  and  practically  none  D.  "Of  the  'poorest,'  57.5  per 
cent  graded  D—  or  D,  and  less  than  3  per  cent  A  or  B. 
The  data  show  that  a  man  above  C  is  from  eight  to  twelve 
times  as  likely  to  be  '  best '  as  to  be  '  poorest ' ;  and  that  a  man 
below  C—  is  from  six  to  ten  times  as  Hkely  to  be  'poorest'  as 
to  be  'best.'  InteUigence  seems  to  be  the  most  important 
factor  in  determining  a  soldier's  value  to  the  service."  (From 
Army  Mental  Tests,  p.  14,  printed  November  22,  1918.) 

Undoubtedly  the  various  intelligence  scales  point  in  the 
right  direction,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  they  fall  short  of  the 
purpose  intended,  viz.,  determining  the  degree  of  intelligence 
or  native  mental  ability  of  an  individual.  Most  of  the  ques- 
tions are  to  a  large  extent  questions  depending  upon  informa- 
tion, that  is,  training  or  education,  and  not  just  "gumption," 
or  intelligence. 

Exercises  such  as  the  following  seem  to  test  understanding 
or  "gumption,"  and  do  not  depend  upon  much  specific  infor- 
mation :  "Arrange  in  order  and  tell  whether  true  or  false: '  Cows 
milk  give';  'write  are  with  to  pencils';  'will  live  bird  no  for- 
ever'; 'external  deceptive  never  appearances  are.'"  While 
the  following  depend  to  some  extent  upon  certain  knowledge 
and  training,  the  main  thing  is  clear  comprehension  and  logi- 
cal thinking:  "How  many  pencils  can  you  buy  for  40  cents 
at  the  rate  of  2  for  5  cents?"  "If  2^  tons  of  hay  cost  $20, 
what  will  4^  tons  cost?" 

The  tests  have  been  of  great  value  in  that  they  furnish  a 
quick  and  tolerably  standardized  measure  of  comparison. 
They  have  been  of  special  value  in  sifting  out  the  feeble- 
minded from  normal  children.     It  should  frankly  be  recog- 


368    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

nized,  however,  that  they  do  not  provide  absolutely  definite 
measuring  units,  like  a  foot  rule  or  as  a  pound  weight.  The 
answers  all  have  to  be  interpreted,  and  no  two  examiners 
would  evaluate  them  in  exactly  the  same  way.  Comparative 
studies,  however,  go  to  show  that  the  judgments  of  different 
examiners  do  not  differ  so  widely  as  to  invalidate  the  conclu- 
sions. A  child's  condition  may  vary  greatly  from  time  to 
time,  so  that  the  results  secured  at  different  sittings  may  vary 
considerably. 

Ayres  ( The  Binet-Simon  Measuring  Scale  for  Intelligence : 
Some  Criticisms  and  Suggestions,  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
191 1 )  maintains  also  that: 

I.  The  tests  predominantly  reflect  the  child's  ability  to 
use  words  fluently,  and  only  in  small  measure  his  ability  to  do 
acts. 

II.  Five  of  them  depend  upon  the  child's  recent  environ- 
mental experience. 

III.  Seven  depend  on  his  ability  to  read  and  write. 

IV.  Too  great  weight  is  given  to  tests  of  ability  to  repeat 
words  and  numbers. 

V.  Too  great  weight  is  given  to  ''puzzle  tests." 

VI.  Unreasonable  emphasis  is  given  to  tests  of  ability  to 
define  abstract  terms. 

Like  all  the  intelligence  tests  that  have  been  devised,  they 
tend  to  test  information  rather  than  native  ability  or  intelli- 
gence. 

Caution  Suggested  in  Interpretation  of  Tests. — Intelligence 
measurement  represents  a  new  and  significant  direction  of  sci- 
entific psychology  and  education.  Caution  needs  to  be  ex- 
ercised in  the  interpretation  of  results.  The  movement  is  in 
its  infancy,  and  much  more  critical  work  needs  to  be  done  in 
devising  tests  and  interpreting  them.  Before  making  sweep- 
ing changes  in  the  classification  of  children  and  before  tests 
are  used  as  absolute  means  of  determining  vocational  apti- 
tudes much  more  work  needs  to  be  done. 

Doctor  Trabue,  an  expert  in  measurements,  has  emphasized 
the  same  idea  in  a  recent  article.     (''Some  Pitfalls  in  the  Ad- 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  369 

ministrative  Use  of  Intelligence  Tests,"  Jour,  of  Educational 
Research,  June,  1922,  pp.  2-9.)     He  writes: 

An  inadequate  understanding  of  the  scope  and  significance  of  the 
tests  may  lead  to  serious  difficulties.  "Intelligence"  is  a  big  word, 
and  it  signifies  to  the  average  person  a  broad  range  of  abilities.  Each 
of  the  group  intelligence  scales  at  present  available  involves  only  a 
few  of  these  abilities,  and  no  two  of  these  scales  measure  exactly  the 
same  combination  of  qualities.  We  know  very  little  about  the  specific 
traits  that  should  be  included  in  a  comprehensive  test  of  general  intelli- 
gence, and  still  less  about  the  relative  weight  that  should  be  attached 
to  the  different  tests  to  be  included.  We  are  certain  that  we  do  not 
yet  have  any  system  of  tests  in  which  exactly  the  proper  elements  are 
combined  in  exactly  the  proper  proportions  to  make  a  perfect  test  of 
general  intelligence.  What  then  do  the  intelligence  tests  actually 
measure?  What  are  the  criteria  by  which  we  are  judging  the  intelli- 
gence of  pupils?  As  teachers  we  tend  to  think  of  intelligence  in  the 
rather  narrow  terms  of  school  success.  The  child  who  prepares  his 
lessons  easily  and  well  is  "intelligent."  The  one  who  has  difficulty  in 
understanding  words,  symbols,  and  complex  ideas  is  "rather  stupid." 
Practically  all  of  the  present  intelligence  tests  are  built  on  the  assump- 
tion that  success  in  school  work  is  only  another  measure  of  intelli- 
gence. The  pupils  who  make  high  scores  on  the  intelligence  tests  are 
the  ones  who  enjoy  and  can  easily  master  the  books  and  abstract  ideas 
offered  in  the  schools.  .   .  . 

In  view  of  the  specific  nature  of  the  intelligence  tests,  it  is  unfortu- 
nate that  the  custom  has  grown  up  of  speaking  of  one  child  as  "supe- 
rior" to  another,  when  the  only  evidence  of  such  superiority  is  that  he 
has  made  a  larger  score  on  a  given  test.  The  evil  of  this  custom  is 
more  clearly  seen  when  one  child  is  reported  as  "inferior"  to  another. 
How  do  we  know  that  the  perfect  all-round  intelligence  test  might  not 
weight  social  intelligence,  or  mechanical  intelligence,  or  some  other 
type  of  ability,  much  more  heavily  than  the  academic  type  we  now 
can  measure?  Do  we  know  that  the  child  making  a  low  score  in  ab- 
stract intelligence  might  not  be  rated  much  higher  if  measured  by  a 
truly  general  intelligence  test?  The  words  "superior"  and  "inferior" 
give  far  too  great  an  importance  to  the  type  of  tests  that  are  now  avail- 
able. College  graduates  in  business  make  a  higher  score,  on  the  salary 
scale,  than  college  graduates  in  education,  but  we  do  not  for  that  rea- 
son need  to  speak  of  one  of  these  groups  as  superior  to  the  other.   .   .   . 

Another  false  conclusion,  drawn  from  the  results  of  the  so-called 
intelligence  tests,  is  that  pupils  who  make  scores  of  a  certain  size  will 
not  profit  by  further  training.  The  tests  used  are  measures  of  a 
specific  type  of  ability — the  type  which  enables  pupils  to  succeed  at 


370    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

the  academic  work  offered  in  the  usual  public  school.  If  a  child  makes 
a  low  score  in  the  tests,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  useless  to  train 
him.  The  child  may  indeed  have  reached  his  maximum  level  in  ab- 
stract work  with  symbols  and  words,  but  there  remains  an  endless 
number  of  avenues  through  which  he  may  broaden  his  experience  and 
enrich  his  store  of  knowledge,  even  at  his  relatively  low  level  of  ab- 
stract thought.  There  may  be  other  fields  of  training,  also,  in  which 
such  a  child  may  demonstrate  a  relatively  higher  level  of  ability.  It 
is  certainly  unfair  to  refuse  further  training  to  a  child  because  the 
school  has  in  the  past  failed  to  recognize  the  needs  of  pupils  of  his 
type.  At  the  other  extreme  there  is  a  pitfall  of  just  as  serious  a  nature 
— the  assumption  that  those  who  make  high  scores  on  the  so-called 
intelligence  tests  do  not  need  special  attention  or  training,  because 
they  will  take  care  of  themselves. 

Doctor  Guiler  ("  How  Different  Mental  Tests  Agree  in  Rat- 
ing Children,"  Elementary  School  Journal,  June,  1922),  after 
a  critical  evaluation  of  a  large  number  of  tests,  drew  conclu- 
sions similar  to  those  of  Rugg.  Among  his  suggestions  are 
the  following: 

1.  Mental  measurements,  in  their  present  state  of  develop- 
ment, must  not  be  accepted  as  the  final  gauge  of  mentality. 
This  conclusion  is  made  on  the  basis  of  the  large  amount  of 
disagreement  existing  among  the  different  tests  employed  in 
this  investigation. 

2.  It  seems  unwise  to  attempt  to  estimate  mentality  on  the 
basis  of  a  single  mental  examination. 

3.  More  attention  needs  to  be  given  to  the  displacement  of 
mental  ratings.  While  the  correlation  between  some  of  the 
distributions  of  mental  ratings  is  marked,  the  lack  of  agree- 
ment among  specific  ratings  in  the  same  distribution  is  equally 
striking. 

4.  The  greatest  need  in  mental  testing  to-day  seems  to  be 
the  perfection  of  existing  tests  and  scales. 

5.  Mental  tests  render  an  important  service  in  selecting 
children  of  high  and  low  mentaHty.  Their  usefulness  is  lim- 
ited in  the  middle  quartiles. 


MEASURING   MENTAL   ABILITY  371 


SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Mention  some  of  the  different  types  of  mental  abilities  of  school 
children.  2.  Are  the  differences  due  to  native  power  or  training  ?  3,  Who 
was  Binet?  4.  Who  is  Terman?  Goddard?  5.  What  is  meant  by 
"I.  Q."?  6.  What  advantage  is  there  in  classifying  children  by  mental 
age  rather  than  by  chronological  age?  7.  Do  you  think  one's  I.  Q.  is 
constant  through  life?  If  so,  of  what  advantage  is  it  to  know  a  child's 
I,  Q.  ?  8.  What  is  an  "age-grade"  table?  What  are  some  of  the  interest- 
ing facts  usually  disclosed  ?  9.  Would  you  place  specially  gifted  children 
in  a  special  school?  How  else  could  they  be  given  adequate  advantages? 
10.  Do  children  with  superior  gifts  always  do  better  than  others  in  school? 
In  life  pursuits?  11.  For  classification  purposes  how  great  variations  in 
mental  age  might  be  permitted  in  the  same  class?  12.  Distinguish  be- 
tween intelligence  and  achievement.  13.  What  is  meant  by  diagnostic 
and  by  prognostic  measurement?  14.  What  are  the  main  characteristics 
of  the  "Army  Intelligence"  tests?     How  do  other  tests  resemble  them? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Book,  The  Intelligence  of  High  School  Seniors.     Entire  book. 

2.  Hollingworth,  Judging  Human  Character,  chap.  VII. 

3.  McCall,  How  to  Measure  in  Education,  chaps.  I,  II. 

4.  Starch,  Educational  Psychology,  chap.  VII. 

5.  Terman,  The  Intelligence  of  School  Children.     Entire  book. 

6.  Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence.     Entire  book. 

7.  Terman,  Intelligence  Tests  and  School  Reorganization.     Entire  book. 

8.  Yoakum  and  Yerkes,  Army  Mental  Tests.     Entire  book. 


CHAPTER  XX 
COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT 

Scales  for  Measuring  Achievement. — It  is  important  not 
only  to  measure  and  compare  the  abilities  of  individuals,  but 
also  to  measure  and  compare  their  achievements  in  given  lines. 
This  has  been  done  quite  successfully  in  connection  with 
school  children's  achievements  in  several  subjects  of  the  cur- 
riculum. The  most  important  measurements  have  been  made 
in  arithmetic,  spelling,  handwriting,  reading,  and  composition. 
It  is  very  desirable  in  teaching  and  in  school  administration 
to  know  how  the  achievements  of  pupils  in  a  certain  grade  in 
a  given  school  compare  with  the  achievements  of  the  same 
grade  in  another  school.  It  is  convenient  and  valuable  to 
have  a  means  of  comparing  the  results  in  the  various  subjects 
in  one  school  system  with  those  in  another  system.  The  scales 
also  furnish  a  means  of  comparing  the  status  of  one  grade 
with  another. 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  scales  do  not  indicate  the 
ability  of  a  given  pupil  or  grade  or  school,  but  furnish  a  ready 
means  of  comparing  the  accomplishments  of  different  individ- 
uals or  groups  of  individuals.  Neither  do  the  scales  indicate 
what  ought  to  be  taught  nor  best  methods  of  teaching.  These 
must  be  determined  by  other  means.  Of  course,  if  a  given 
method  has  been  tried  and  the  comparative  tests  show  un- 
favorable results,  then  another  method  is  pursued  and  favor- 
able results  follow,  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  the  method 
should  at  least  be  partly  credited  with  the  better  results. 

Previous  Methods  Not  Comparative. — In  the  past  either  no 
comparisons  have  been  made  or  the  methods  of  measuring 
have  been  very  inaccurate  and  variable.  Each  person  formed 
a  judgment  on  the  basis  of  his  own  standard.  A  great  many 
investigators  have  recently  put  forth  much  effort  in  construct- 

372 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  375 

ing  scales  which  may  be  used  under  standardized  conditions, 
and  which  may  be  scored  in  the  same  way  by  different  persons 
applying  the  tests.  Of  course  absolutely  the  same  scoring 
can  never  be  given,  but  by  the  selection  of  materials  and  then 
by  prescribing  the  conditions  in  scoring  much  more  compara- 
ble results  may  be  secured  than  when  the  entire  judgment  is 
made  haphazard.  Without  definite  scales  and  standards  one 
teacher  may  judge  a  specimen  of  handwriting,  for  example,  as 
"good,"  while  another  teacher  may  regard  the  same  specimen 
as  "poor."  Each  judges  from  his  own  particular  bias.  One 
may  consider  slant  or  angles,  the  other  may  consider  height, 
legibility,  or  even  have  no  particular  criterion.  Consequently 
the  judgments  of  "poor"  or  "good"  have  no  value  compara- 
tively. If  they  could  compare  it  with  many  samples  on  a 
scale  and  decide  that  it  corresponds  to  sample  "60"  or  "80," 
there  would  be  a  much  more  definite  meaning  to  the  judg- 
ment. 

Samples  of  Achievement  Scales. — A  few  of  the  well-estab- 
lished scales  will  be  indicated  in  order  that  the  reader  may 
get  an  idea  of  educational  scales  and  their  application.  The 
scales  that  have  been  constructed  and  very  largely  used  are 
by  no  means  the  only  ones  that  can  be  made.  Any  good 
teacher  who  knows  how  to  set  an  examination  in  her  own 
work  can  construct  scales.  The  most  important  factors  in  a 
good  scale  are  that  (a)  it  tests  for  specific  things,  and  (b)  it 
should  be  possible  to  give  them  under  uniform  conditions;  (c) 
it  should  be  possible  to  score  them  uniformly.  The  special 
merit  of  such  scales  as  Thorndike's  handwriting  scale,  Starch's 
spelling  scale,  Trabue's  language  scale,  is  that  they  have  been 
standardized  and  have  been  given  so  many  times  and  to  so 
many  pupils  that  they  furnish  a  wide  basis  for  comparing  any 
given  results. 

Ayres's  Handwriting  Scale. — Accompanying  is  given  a  copy 
of  the  Ayres  handwriting  scale  which  has  been  very  widely 
used.  The  detailed  suggestions  for  using  are  printed  on  the 
scale.     A  few  additional  points  are  herein  indicated. 


PORTION  OF  MEASURING 


20 


80 


SCALE  FOR  HANDWRITING 


30 


y^u^c^x^^y.^  ^Z^^ff- 


.^oi^Q^-^y^ 


..^CC^t^  ^^'^^^^^-^'Ccfy^.^C^rx^^ 


^^*?t^ 


:x^z--^L-^'^<^o-»- 


.^^^^^^ 


90 


^x-'^^.-t^^^-'^TMf^   <:;^>^^<^-" 


^^^-U^^cU.^<^-^Ck^  y 


376         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

To  secure  samples  of  Imndwriting  the  teacher  should  write 
on  the  board  the  first  three  sentences  of  Lincoln's  Gettys- 
burg Address  and  have  the  pupils  read  and  copy  until  familiar 
with  it.  They  should  then  copy  it,  beginning  at  a  given  signal 
and  writing  for  precisely  two  minutes.  They  should  write  in 
ink  on  ruled  paper.  The  copy  with  the  count  of  the  letters 
is  as  follows : 

Four  4  score  9  and  12  seven  17  years  22  ago  25  our  28  fathers  35 
brought  42  forth  47  upon  51  this  55  continent  64  a  65  new  68  nation 
74  conceived  83  in  85  liberty  92  and  95  dedicated  104  to  106  the  109 
proposition  120  that  124  all  127  men  130  are  133  created  140  equal 
145.  Now  148  we  150  are  153  engaged  160  in  162  a  163  great  168  civil 
173  war  176  testing  183  whether  190  that  194  nation  2cx)  or  202  any 
205  nation  211  so  213  conceived  222  and  225  so  227  dedicated  236  can 
239  long  243  endure  249.  We  251  are  254  met  257  on  259  a  260  great 
265  battlefield  276  of  278  that  282  war  285. 

The  quality  of  a  specimen  of  writing  is  determined  by  com- 
paring the  specimen  with  the  several  numbered  samples  in 
the  scale  and  deciding  which  one  the  specimen  most  nearly 
resembles.     The  method  advocated  by  Ayres  is  as  follows : 

The  scorer  sorts  into  separate  piles  all  of  the  papers  to  be  rated, 
putting  in  one  pile  those  which  he  judges  to  be  of  quality  20,  in  another 
those  which  he  judges  to  be  of  quality  30,  and  so  on  for  all  of  the  dif- 
ferent quaUties.  He  then  carefully  compares  all  of  the  papers  in  each 
pile  with  each  other  and  with  the  samples  of  that  value  reproduced  on 
the  scale,  so  as  to  make  sure  that  he  has  not  included  in  the  pile  any 
samples  that  might  more  justly  be  assigned  to  the  next  higher  or  lower 
piles.  (Ayres,  L.  P.,  ^  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting 
of  Adults,  p.  9.) 

Another  method  consists  in  starting  at  the  bottom  of  the 
scale  and  moving  the  specimen  upward  until  the  judge  decides 
that  a  given  sample  on  the  scale  is  just  superior  to  the  speci- 
men under  consideration.  Then  the  specimen  is  moved  from 
the  top  downward  until  a  sample  is  found  which  is  judged  to 
be  just  inferior  to  the  one  considered.  A  figure  midway  be- 
tween the  two  points  is  then  considered  as  the  rating.  For 
example,  if  in  using  the  Ayres  scale  the  lower  figure  were  50 


COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT  377 

and  the  upper  60,  the  rating  assigned  would  be  55.  Some- 
times several  factors,  such  as  legibility,  slant,  spacing,  align- 
ment, uniformity,  neatness,  etc.,  are  rated  separately,  and 
then  the  various  judgments  are  combined  according  to  certain 
standardized  methods. 

On  the  "Gettysburg  Edition"  the  following  additional  de- 
tails are  given : 

To  score  samples  slide  each  specimen  along  the  scale  until 
a  writing  of  the  same  quality  is  found.  The  number  at  the 
top  of  the  scale  above  this  shows  the  value  of  the  writing  being 
measured.  Disregard  differences  in  style,  but  try  to  find  on 
the  scale  the  quality  corresponding  with  that  of  the  sample 
being  scored.  With  practice  the  scorer  will  develop  the  ability 
to  recognize  qualities  more  rapidly  and  with  increasing  ac- 
curacy. If  the  scoring  is  done  twice,  the  results  will  be  con- 
siderably more  accurate  than  if  done  only  once.  The  pro- 
cedure may  be  as  follows:  Score  samples  and  distribute  them 
in  piles  with  all  the  20's  in  one  pile,  all  the  30's  in  another, 
and  so  on.  Mark  these  values  on  the  backs  of  the  papers, 
then  shuffle  the  samples  and  score  them  a  second  time. 
Finally  make  careful  decisions  to  overcome  any  disagree- 
ments in  the  two  scorings. 

The  scale  (p.  378)  for  measuring  the  quahtyof  handwriting  is 
a  revised  edition  of  a  scale  first  published  in  191 2  and  subse- 
quently reprinted  12  times  with  several  minor  revisions  and 
with  a  total  of  62,000  copies.  The  purpose  of  the  changes 
introduced  in  the  present  edition  is  to  increase  the  reliability 
of  measurements  of  handwriting  through  standardizing  meth- 
ods of  securing  and  scoring  samples,  and  through  making 
numerous  improvements  in  the  scale  itself  designed  to  reduce 
variability  in  the  results  secured  through  its  use.  The  present 
scale  may  be  referred  to  as  the  "Gettysburg  Edition"  in  order 
to  distinguish  it  from  other  editions.  The  original  or  "Three 
Slant  Edition"  and  the  scale  for  adult  handwriting  are  not 
superseded  by  the  present  scale.  Copies  of  any  of  the  three 
scales  may  be  secured  for  ten  cents  each,  postpaid,  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  N.  Y. 


378 


EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


The  following  graphs  show  standardized  results  from  vast 
numbers  of  cases: 


Fifth 
grade 


Sixth     18 
grade 


JBXLA 


, ,  siBsi     , — ,  m 

ISeventhf    ■■■1  {Eighth   isHH,. 

L  jllliii  illllL 


10  20  30  406060  70  8090      2030405060  70  80  90      2a3040S0607080  90      3040  80-60  JO  80  90 


Qaality  of  writing.     Columns  rejiresent  per  cent  of  pupils  in  each  of  four  upper 
grades  commonly  found  to  have  handwriting  of  qualities  shown  below  each  column. 

m  III    ^  Jli    mijit    ^  M 

■0  20  10  40  so  «0  70  80  M  100   20  30  40  SO  60  '70  80  00  100  110   30  40  SO  «0  70  80  00  100  110  120   30  40  SO  eO  70  80  90  100  110  120 
t»  2»  1»  40  »  «9  79  SO  »9  IW   29  39  4«  S«  0«  70  89  M  1(N  119   39  49  S9  ««  79  En  99  IMUtlM       J9  49  S»  M  79  tO  99  1091I9I20 

Rate  of  writing.    Columns  represent  per  cent  of  pupils  in  each  of  four  upper  grades 
commonly  found  to  write  the  number  of  letters  per  minute  shown  below  each  column. 


Sate 
Averaga     niun- 

ber    of    leRers  _. 

written  per  min-  '* 

nte  and  average  72 
quality  of  writ- 
ing    commonly 
found  in  grades 

from  second  to  60 

eighth.  Number  £6 

of    letters    per  co 

grade  is  48 

the  third  44 

44,  in  the  fourth  ^a 

55,  in  the  fiftb  *; 

64,  in  the  sixth  36 

71,  in  the  ser-  32 

etoh  76,  and  in  90 

Bie  eigbtik  79.  *" 


minute 

■ec 

^1> 


-Jr^ 

Ty^  — 

-—&— 

: — <^~~ 

^> 

— fzr 


34    38    43    46    so    54    58    63    66 
Q  u  a  1  1  t  7 


Reasons  for  Using  Handwriting  Scales. — Even  when  measures  of 
handwriting  are  not  accurate  they  force  the  teacher  to  give  attention 
to  the  specific  faults  and  needs  of  the  pupils.  This  measurement  cre- 
ates a  critical  and  scientific  attitude  in  the  teacher  toward  the  out- 
comes of  instruction.  This  attitude  tends  to  remove  the  attention 
from  personal  bias  and  feeling  to  an  objective  consideration  of  the 
results  secured.  Measurement  of  handwriting  also  banishes  the  old 
false  standards  represented  by  the  perfect  specimens  which  were  pro- 
duced from  an  engraved  plate.  In  their  stead  are  proposed  some 
standards  which  are  within  the  reach  of  a  majority  of  the  pupils. 
Thus  many  children  can  know  the  joy  which  comes  from  achieving 
something  recognized  to  be  of  value.  In  addition  to  these  values 
measurement  is  destined  to  become  scientifically  accurate  and  thus 
furnish  a  valid  basis  for  instruction.  (Monroe,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly, 
Educational  Tests  and  Measurements,  p.  i88.) 


COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT  379 

Testing  Speed  in  Handwriting. — In  case  speed  in  hand- 
writing is  to  be  measured,  the  amount  that  a  given  pupil  or 
group  writes  in  a  given  time  is  compared  with  the  amount 
that  has  been  accomphshed  by  other  groups  under  standard- 
ized conditions.  The  speed  is  determined  by  the  number  of 
letters  per  minute  which  are  written.  The  standardized  con- 
ditions usually  require  that  the  material  to  be  written  should 
be  memorized  before  the  speed  test  is  taken.  Of  course  it 
would  be  perfectly  fair  and  comparable  if  the  standards  had 
been  established  by  copying  from  written  or  printed  material 
or  from  phonographic  dictation  at  a  definitely  standardized 
rate.  To  have  the  work  entirely  comparable,  the  test  mate- 
rial should  be  the  same  as  that  used  in  the  standardization. 

Various  details,  like  good  pens,  ink,  paper,  correct  position, 
and  proper  light  are  very  important,  and  should  be  alike  in 
the  test  and  the  standardized  efforts.  Familiarity  with  the 
spelling,  capitalization,  etc.,  are  presupposed.  The  manner  in 
which  the  directions  are  given  is  very  important.  In  any  test 
only  those  familiar  with  the  test  and  practised  in  giving  it 
should  be  allowed  to  give  the  directions.  Monroe  suggests 
the  following  directions  as  typical  of  those  that  have  proven 
satisfactory : 

Write  the  stanza  of  the  poem  which  you  have  learned.  When  you 
have  written  the  stanza,  write  it  again,  and  keep  on  writing  until  I 
tell  you  to  stop.  Write  as  well  as  you  can  and  as  fast  as  you  can. 
Write  on  one  side  of  the  paper.  W^hen  you  fill  one  page,  use  another. 
Place  your  paper  in  position  and  see  that  your  pen  and  ink  are  ready. 
When  I  say  "Ready!"  ink  your  pen  and  place  your  hand  in  position 
to  write,  but  do  not  begin  until  I  say  "  Start ! "  When  I  say  *'  Stop ! "  all 
stop  at  once  and  raise  your  hands  so  I  can  see  that  you  have  stopped. 
Remember:  fast  work  and  good  work.  Ready!  Start!  At  the  end 
of  three  minutes,  "Stop!"  (Monroe,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly,  Educational 
Tests  and  Measurements,  p.  148.) 

Wilson  believes  that  the  speed  test  should  be  of  only  two 
minutes  duration,  and  says  that  the  most  usual  unit  now  used 
is  two  minutes.     (Wilson  and  Hoke,  How  to  Measure,  p.  27.) 

The  handwriting  scale,  like  other  scales  for  comparing 
achievement,  does  not  determine  whether  a  given  specimen  of 


380        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR   TEACHERS 


STANDARD  SCORE-CARD  FOR  MEASURING  HANDWRITING 
Devised  by  C.  T.  Gray 


Pupil Age Date 

Grade School 

Sample  Number Teacher 

S.\MPLE 

PERFECT 
SCORE 

SCORE                                       1 

I 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

II 

12 

I       Heaviness 

3 

5 
7 

8 
9 

II 

18 

13 

(26) 
8 
6 
5 
5 
2 

2.     Slant 

Uniformity 
Mixed 

1      Size                 

Uniformity 
Too  large 
Too  small 

4.     Alignment 

S      Spacing  of  lines               .  . 

Uniformity 
Too  close 
Too  far  apart 

6.  Spacing  of  words 

Uniformity 
Too  close 
Too  far  apart 

7.  Spacing  of  letters 

Uniformity 
Too  close 
Too  far  apart 

8      Neatness 

Blotches 
Carelessness 

9.     Formation  of  letters.  .  .  . 
General  form             

Smoothness     

Letters  not  closed 

Parts  omitted 

Parts  added 

Total  Score 

COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT  381 

handwriting  is  good  or  poor,  but  simply  enables  a  judge  to 
determine  whether  he  regards  the  specimen  as  good,  as  poorer 
or  better  than  the  standard,  or  to  determine  what  part  of  the 
scale  he  thinks  corresponds  exactly  with  the  specimen.  It 
must  be  recognized  that  the  scale  does  not  determine  exactly, 
for  different  persons  using  the  same  scale  to  judge  the  quality 
of  the  specimen  might  judge  differently.  One  person  might 
decide  by  the  general  legibility,  another  by  the  slant,  another 
by  the  spacing,  another  by  the  fineness  or  coarseness  of  the 
lines,  another  by  the  angularity,  etc.  A  score-card  for  tabu- 
lating and  evaluating  results  devised  by  C.  T.  Gray  is  ap- 
pended. (Gray,  C.  Truman,  A  Score-Card  for  the  Measure- 
ment of  Handwriting,  Bulletin  No.  37,  University  of  Texas, 

1915.) 

Spelling  Scales. — Various  spelling  scales  have  been  devised. 
Some  of  them  consist  of  lists  of  selected  words  to  be  written 
as  dictated  singly,  and  others  consist  of  words  woven  into 
sentences  or  connected  material.  In  order  to  use  the  scales 
in  diagnosis  to  compare  a  given  pupil  or  group  with  the 
standardized  group,  it  is  necessary  to  use  the  same  material 
and  under  the  same  conditions. 

The  standard  is  determined  by  giving  the  tests  to  a  large 
group  and  finding  the  record  for  the  group.  Any  other  group 
or  individual  record  can  then  be  compared  with  the  standard- 
ized record.  The  standardized  record  is  not  necessarily  the 
ideal  one.  For  example,  spelling  might  be  studied  in  Denver, 
and  those  results  considered  as  a  standardized  measure.  That 
would  not  mean  that  the  accomplishments  in  spelling  in  Den- 
ver were  ideal.  They  might  be  far  below  what  they  ought  to 
be  or  the  results  might  be  very  superior. 

The  results  do  not  necessarily  show  anything  concerning 
the  efficiency  of  methods  pursued.  The  conditions  of  learn- 
ing may  have  been  entirely  different.  One  group  may  have 
had  much  practice,  the  others  little;  one  group  may  have 
learned  by  the  oral  method,  the  other  through  writing.  The 
test  simply  reveals  the  comparative  status  in  accomplishment. 
Having  discovered  this,  another  problem  is  to  find  out  why 


382    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

the  difference  and  how  to  remedy  defects.     These  are  much 
more  difficult  problems. 

Ayres's  Spelling  Scale. — Doctor  Ayres  aimed  to  select  words 
that  are  in  everyday  use.  He  selected  words  from  standard 
literary  selections,  from  the  correspondence  of  2,500  persons, 
from  250  different  articles  that  appeared  in  four  Buffalo  Sun- 
day newspapers,  from  2,000  business  letters,  and  from  the 
family  correspondence  of  13  adults.  From  these  he  selected 
1,000  words,  which  were  used  as  many  as  44  times  in  all  of 
the  sources. 

The  next  step  was  to  arrange  the  different  words  according  to  diffi- 
culty, in  order  to  secure  a  graded  test,  or,  in  other  words,  a  spelling 
scale.  To  determine  the  relative  difficulty  of  the  words  in  the  1,000 
list.  Doctor  Ayres  arranged  to  have  the  words  spelled  by  school  pupils. 
Fifty  lists  of  20  words  each  were  constructed,  and  the  words  included 
in  these  lists  were  pronounced  to  the  pupils  of  the  various  grades  in 
the  middle  of  the  school  year  in  the  schools  of  84  cities  scattered 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  data  secured  from  these  tests 
gave  a  total  of  1,400,000  spellings  by  70,000  school  children.  On  the 
basis  of  these  data,  the  1,000  words  were  divided  into  26  groups 
according  to  difficulty.  This  will  be  understood  by  reference  to  the 
scale.     (See  scale  inserted  herewith.) 

Group  "A"  consists  of  "me"  and  "do,"  and  these  words  were 
spelled  by  99  per  cent  of  the  second-grade  pupils.  At  the  other  ex- 
treme, group  "Z,"  consisting  of  "judgment,"  "recommend,"  and 
"allege,"  were  spelled  by  only  50  per  cent  of  the  eighth-grade  pupils. 
The  scale  is  simple  and  easily  understood.  At  the  top  of  each  column 
is  shown  the  average  per  cent  of  the  words  spelled  by  each  grade, 
except  that  report  is  not  made  upon  any  grade  for  per  cents  below  50. 
The  blank  spaces  to  the  left,  however,  if  filled  in,  would  indicate  in 
each  case  100  per  cent — that  is  to  say,  the  eighth-grade  pupils  spelled 
all  of  the  words  correctly  from  columns  "A"  to  "N"  inclusive. 
(Quoted  from  Wilson  and  Hoke,  How  to  Measure,  p.  6.) 

Courtis's  Arithmetic  Scales. — The  first  known  standardized 
scales  for  the  measurement  of  achievement  in  any  of  the  school 
subjects  were  the  Courtis  tests  in  arithmetic,  first  published 
in  1910.  The  series  "A"  consisted  of  eight  tests,  as  follows: 
I.  Addition.  2.  Subtraction.  3.  Multiplication.  4.  Division. 
(In  each  of  the  foregoing  combinations  0-9.)     5.  Copying  fig- 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  383 

ures.     (Rate  of  motor  activity.)     6.  Speed  reasoning.     (Judg- 
ments of  operation  to  be  used  in  simple  one-step  problems.) 

7.  Fundamentals.     (Abstract  examples  in  the  four  operations.) 

8.  Reasoning.     (Two-step  problems.) 

Series  *'B"  of  the  Courtis  tests  consists  of  tests  in  the  four 
fundamental  operations  only.  That  series  has  been  very  ex- 
tensively used ;  one  year  they  were  used  in  nearly  every  State 
in  the  Union  and  in  foreign  countries,  about  a  half-million 
copies  being  required.  The  following  are  a  few  typical  exam- 
ples from  the  tests: 

Series  B,  Form  2. 
ARITHMETIC 

Test  No.  I 

Addition — Time  :  8  Minutes 

Score 

No.  Attempted 

No.  Right 

You  will  be  given  eight  minutes  to  find  the  answers  to  as  many  of 
these  addition  examples  as  possible.  Write  the  answers  on  this  paper 
directly  beneath  the  examples.  You  are  not  expected  to  be  able  to 
do  them  all.  You  will  be  marked  for  both  speed  and  accuracy,  but  it 
is  more  important  to  have  your  answers  right  than  to  try  a  great 
many  examples. 

(24  Examples  in  All) 


837 

996 

877 

572 

862 

267 

588 

236 

882 

320 

845 

253 

159 

854 

256 

578 

957 

778 

981 

948 

383 

684 

719 

877 

603 

886 

693 

529 

451 

358 

524 

916 

118 

913 

184 

936 

938 

938 

969 

543 

781 

164 

772 

223 

433 

333 

761 

593 

756 

897 

749 

358 

599 

493 

113 

956 

222 

972 

256 

676 

172 

775 

449 

439 

525 

119 

258 

122 

152 

239 

122 

309 

Test  No.  II 

Subtraction  (24  Examples) — Time  :  4  Minutes 

115364741  113380936  146246252  37953635 

80195261  42666840  52160891  23913884 


384         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

119811864  137769153  168354186  105755782 

34379846  70176835  70537861  90863147 

Test  No.  Ill 

Multiplication  (25  Examples) — Time:  6  Minutes 

7942  4795  9245  8357  4965 

72  83  86  87  iQ 

Test  No.  IV 
Division  (24  Examples) — Time:  8  Minutes 


92  )  27784  64  )  61504  Ss  )  26643  29  )  24679 


57  )  51642  46  )  34086  75  )  55500  s^  )  32300 

Woody  Arithmetic  Scales. — Doctor  Clifford  Woody  devised 
a  set  of  arithmetic  tests,  one  for  each  of  the  four  fundamental 
operations.  He  says  that  his  "idea  was  to  derive  a  series  of 
scales  which  would  indicate  the  type  of  problems  (examples) 
and  the  difficulty  of  the  problems  (examples)  that  a  class  can 
solve  correctly."  (Woody,  Clifford,  Measurements  of  Some 
Achievements  in  Arithmetic,  p.  i.)  The  examples  are  graded 
in  the  order  of  increasing  difficulty.  "Each  is  composed  of 
as  great  a  variety  of  problems  (examples)  as  the  fundamental 
operations  can  well  permit."  In  deciding  upon  the  examples 
to  include,  he  gave  preliminary  tests  which  contained  more 
than  those  finally  selected.  Those  examples  "were  chosen 
which  were  solved  by  a  gradually  increasing  percentage  of 
the  pupils  as  one  proceeded  from  the  lower  to  the  higher 
grades."     A  sample  of  the  Woody  scales  is  given  below: 

Series  B 
ADDITION  SCALE 
By  Clifford  Woody 


City County School Date 

Name When  is  your  next  birthday  ? 

How  old  will  you  be? Are  you  a  boy  or  a  girl?.  . .  . 

In  what  grade  are  you? Teacher's  name 


COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT 

385 

(l) 

(2) 

(3) 

(5) 

(7) 

(10) 

2 

2 

17 

72 

3  +1  = 

21 

3 

4 

2 

26 

33 

3 

35 

(13) 

(14) 

(16) 

(19) 

(20) 

23 

2 

5+42 

= 

9 

$.75 

$12.50 

25 

24 

1-25 

16.75 

16 

12 
15 
19 

•49 

15-75 

(21) 

(22) 

(23) 

(24) 

(30) 

$8.00 

547 

>i  +  >i  = 

4.0125 

2K 

5-75 

197 

1-5907 

6H 

2.33 

685 

4.10 

3H 

4.16 

678 

8.673 

•94 

456 

6.32 

393 

525 

240 

152 

(33)  (36)  (38) 

.49     2  yr.  5  mo.     25.091  +  100.4  +  25  -f  98.28  -f  19.3614  = 

.28    3  yr.  6  mo. 

.63    4  yr.  9  mo. 

.95    5  yr.  2  mo. 
1.69    6  yr.  7  mo. 

.22 

'33 

.36 
i.oi 

.56 

.88 

.75 

-56 
1. 10 

.18 
_56 

— (Published  by  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University.) 

Among    the   most   widely   used   arithmetic    tests   are    the 
Diagnostic  Tests  in  Arithmetic,  devised  by  Doctor  Walter  S. 


386    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Monroe,  and  published  by  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Re- 
search of  the  University  of  Hlinois.  The  diagnostic  tests  are 
designed  to  yield  separate  measurements  of  the  important 
abilities  in  the  field  of  operations  of  arithmetic.  Samples  of 
''instructions"  and  tests  in  subtraction  and  in  multipHcation 
follow.     In  each  case  only  correct  results  are  counted. 

Part  II.— Tests  7-1 1. 

BUREAU  OF  EDUCATIONAL  RESEARCH 

University  of  Illinois 
Urbana,  Illinois 


DIAGNOSTIC  TESTS  IN  ARITHMETIC 

Operations  with  Integers 
Devised  by  Walter  S.  Monroe 

Name Age  To-day 

Years  Months 

Race Sex Grade 

City State Date 

School Teacher 

INSTRUCTIONS  TO  EXAMINERS 

Have  the  pupils  fill  out  the  blanks  at  the  top  of  this  page.  Have 
them  start  and  stop  work  together.  Use  a  stop-watch  if  one  is  avail- 
able; if  not,  use  an  ordinary  watch  with  a  second  hand,  and  exercise 
care  to  allow  just  the  exact  time  for  each  test.  Allow  an  interval  of 
half  a  minute  or  more  between  tests.  Require  the  pupils  to  close  the 
folder  as  soon  as  the  signal  to  stop  is  given,  in  order  to  make  certain 
that  they  do  not  spend  this  rest  period  working  on  the  next  test.  If 
the  pupils  need  to  sharpen  pencils  before  going  on,  allow  this  to  be 
done.     The  following  time  allowances  must  be  followed  exactly. 

Test  7 — 2  minutes.  Test  10 — 2  minutes. 

Test  S—3  minutes.  Test  11— 4  minutes. 

Test  9 — I  minute. 


COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT 


387 


Have  the  children  read  the  following  directions:  ''Inside  this  folder 
are  examples  which  you  are  to  work  out  when  the  teacher  tells  you  to 
begin.  Do  not  open  this  folder  before  the  teacher  gives  the  signal. 
Work  rapidly  and  accurately.  There  are  more  examples  in  each  test 
than  you  can  work  out  in  the  time  that  will  be  allowed.  Answers  do 
not  count  if  they  are  wrong.  Begin  and  stop  promptly  at  signals  from 
the  teacher.  Place  the  test  in  position  on  your  desk  so  that  you  can 
open  it  quickly  when  the  signal  is  given  to  begin,  but  do  not  open  it 
until  the  signal  is  given." 

After  all  of  the  tests  have  been  completed  have  the  pupils  exchange 
papers.  Read  the  answers  aloud  and  have  the  children  mark  each 
example  that  is  correct  "C."  Count  the  proper  spaces  at  the  top  of 
the  tests.  Examples  partially  completed  or  partially  right  are  not 
counted. 

Before  collecting  the  papers  have  the  records  transcribed  to  the 
first  page.  The  teacher  should  verify  a  sufficient  number  of  records', 
to  make  certain  that  the  pupils  have  marked  the  papers  and  transcribed 
the  results  correctly. 


Test 

7 

8 

9 

10 

II 

Number  of  examples  attempted.... 

Number  of  examples  right 

Test  9.— SUBTRACTION 

At 

Rt 

739 
367 

1852 
948 

975 
906 

1087 
821 

516 
239 

962 
325 

508 
447 

1371 
843 

1284 
966 

730 
508 

1853 
162 

897 
258 

1910 
361 

735 
478 

1056 
591 

877 
618 

1190 
739 

619 

257 

831 
360 

954 
483 

1077 
704 

13 
8- 

28 

12 

939 
654 

i3i<S 
827 

) 

388         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Test  lo.— MULTIPLICATION  At 

Rt 

560  807  617  840  730  609 

37  _59  508  80  96  70 

435  790  940  307  682  870 

308  60  38  42  409  40 

780  502  386  150  850  401 

56  68  207  90  72  80 

817  460  730  605  392  590 

109  30  52  84  306  30 


Most  of  the  scales  used  in  educational  measurements  are 
so  arranged  that  it  is  possible  to  know  of  the  individual  or 
class  proficiency  in  specific  directions.  Very  frequently,  when 
the  usual  type  of  tests  and  examinations  are  given,  the  teacher 
may  know  that  the  rating  is  high  or  low,  but  the  tests  are  not 
standardized  so  that  specific  excellencies  or  deficiencies  are 
revealed.  A  variety  of  abilities  and  skills  are  involved  in 
most  learning  processes,  which  are  very  complex.  Even  some 
processes  that  seem  very  simple  are  often  very  complex. 
Ordinary  problems  in  arithmetic  involve  manifold  diverse 
processes. 

Arithmetical  Abilities  Distinct. — A  few  years  ago  Stone  investigated 
the  nature  of  ability  in  arithmetic  and  concluded  that  it  was  made  up 
of  a  number  of  specific  abilities.  His  conclusions  have  been  corrob- 
orated by  a  number  of  other  investigations,  and  it  is  now  reasonably 
certain  that  in  teaching  the  operations  of  arithmetic  we  are  attempt- 
ing to  engender  a  number  of  specific  abilities  which  are  relatively  dis- 
tinct, and  not  a  single  arithmetical  ability.  There  are  as  many  differ- 
ent abilities  as  there  are  types  of  examples.  In  fact,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  abiHty  to  add  a  column  of  three  figures  is  not  the  same  as  the  ability 
to  add  a  column  of  twelve  figures.  In  adding  a  column  of  figures  it  is 
necessary  that  one  hold  in  mind  the  partial  sum  until  he  has  added 
the  next  figure.  This  process  must  be  repeated  continuously  until 
the  final  sum  is  reached,  and  a  failure  to  do  this  continuously  wUl 
result  in  stopping  the  adding,  at  least  temporarily.  It  is  a  frequent 
occurrence,  for  one  who  is  not  accustomed  to  adding  long  columns  of 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  389 

figures,  to  find  that  he  has  stopped,  perhaps  has  even  lost  the  partial 
sum,  and  must  begin  again.  The  span  of  attention  required  in  add- 
ing three  figures  is  short,  and  pupils  who  are  able  to  do  examples  of 
this  type  with  a  high  degree  of  skill  frequently  are  unable  to  add  long 
columns  of  figures  with  an  equal  degree  of  skill.  In  fact,  we  have  no 
reason  to  expect  them  to  be  able  to  do  this  type  of  example  until  they 
have  practised  upon  it.  (Monroe,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly,  Educational 
Tests  and  Measurements,  p.  18.) 

Courtis  has  identified  the  following  types  of  examples  in 
the  operations  of  integers  {Teacher's  Mantial  for  Standard 
Practice  Tests,  191 6): 

Addition:  (i)  addition  combinations;  (2)  single-column  addition  of 
three  figures  each;  (3)  "bridging  the  tens,"  as  38  +  7;  (4)  column  addi- 
tion, seven  figures;  (5)  carrying;  (6)  column  addition  with  increased 
attention  span,  thirteen  figures  to  the  column;  (7)  addition  of  numbers 
of  different  lengths. 

Subtraction:  (i)  subtraction  combinations;  (2)  subtraction  of  9  or 
less  from  a  number  of  two  digits,  both  with  and  without  simple  ''bor- 
rowing"; (3)  subtraction  involving  borrowing. 

Multiplication:  (i)  multiplication  combinations;  (2)  multipHcand 
two  digits,  multiplier  one  digit,  and  no  carrying;  (3)  same  as  number 
2,  but  with  carrying;  (4)  long  multiplication,  without  carrying;  (5) 
zero  difficulties;  (6)  long  multiplication,  with  carrying. 

Division:  (i)  division  combinations;  (2)  simple  division,  no  carrying; 
(3)  same  as  number  2,  but  with  carrying;  (4)  long  division,  no  carry- 
ing; (5)  zero  difficulties,  without  carrying;  (6)  long  division,  with  car- 
rying; ''first  case,"  the  first  figure  of  the  divisor  is  the  trial  divisor  and 
the  trial  quotient  is  the  true  quotient;  (7)  "second  case,  where  the 
trial  divisor  is  one  larger  than  the  first  figure  of  the  dividend,  but  the 
trial  quotient  is  the  true  quotient";  (8)  "third  case,  where  the  first 
figure  of  the  divisor  is  the  trial  divisor,  but  the  true  quotient  is  one 
smaller  than  the  trial  quotient";  (9)  "fourth  case,  where  the  first  fig- 
ure of  the  divisor  must  be  increased  by  one  to  get  the  true  quotient." 
.  .  .  Each  of  these  types  of  examples  requires  a  specific  habit  or 
automatism.  To  be  sure,  certain  elements,  such  as  the  fundamental 
combinations,  are  common  elements,  but  careful  analysis  will  show 
that  the  ability  to  do  examples  of  one  type  is  different  from  that 
required  to  do  another.  (Monroe,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly,  Educational 
Tests  and  Measurements,  p.  20.) 

Doctor  Courtis  found  that  the  tests  were  of  great  value  in 
discovering  individual  differences  among  children.     Not  only 


390        EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

were  variations  among  different  individuals  of  the  class  made 
evident,  but  also  great  differences  in  the  same  individual. 
Frequently  a  given  child  was  found  strong  in  addition  but 
weak  in  subtraction  and  division,  etc.  These,  of  course,  did 
not  determine  whether  or  not  they  were  native  differences, 
but  simply  differences  of  achievement.  After  discovering  the 
differences,  the  next  step  is  to  either  attempt  to  reduce  them 
if  due  to  differences  in  training,  or  to  make  the  most  of  them 
if  due  to  real  native  differences.     Courtis  says: 

It  should  ever  be  remembered  that  the  chief  functions  of  standard 
tests  are  four: 

1.  Diagnostic.  To  make  evident  the  actual  conditions  existing  in 
schools,  classes,  and  individuals,  that  the  weak  points  may  be  noted, 
causes  determined,  and  remedies  devised. 

2.  Scientific.  To  discover  the  natural  laws  of  mental  developments 
which  are  operative  in  school  work. 

3.  Experimental.  To  make  possible  control  experiments  that  will 
settle  all  questions  of  educational  procedure  upon  a  fact  basis.  (Scien- 
tific determination  of  the  efficiency  of  different  methods.) 

4.  Supervisory.  To  secure  the  information  needed  in  setting  stand- 
ards for  the  guidance  of  teachers  and  schools,  and  in  determining 
whether  or  not  standards  already  set  are  being  attained.  (Manual  of 
Instructions,  19 14,  p.  5.) 

Geography  Scales  and  History  Scales. — ^While  standardized 
tests  and  scales  were  naturally  first  devised  for  the  more 
exactly  measurable  subjects  like  spelling,  handwriting,  and 
arithmetic,  a  large  number  of  scales  have  been  constructed  for 
practically  all  other  subjects  of  the  elementary  and  high 
school  curriculum.  Samples  of  scales  in  two  of  the  less-exact 
subjects,  history  and  geography,  are  appended.  The  exact 
form  of  page  cannot  be  reproduced  for  lack  of  space,  but 
typical  questions  are  copied  verbatim.  The  first  is  from  Van 
Wageneris  American  History  Scales ^  Information  Scale  B, 
There  are  thirty-four  questions  in  all. 

1.  Who  discovered  the  Hudson  River? 

2.  Who  was  the  first  President  of  the  United  States? 
4.  Name  any  general  who  fought  in  the  Civil  War. 

6.  Name  any  one  of  the  battles  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 


COMPARING   ACHIEVEMENT  391 

8.  With  what  country  did  the  United  States  have  a  war  in  181 2? 

II.  Name  two  purchases  of  land  that  have  been  made  by  the  United 
States. 

15.  Which  of  these  first  came  into  use  in  America:  the  railroad,  the 
stage-coach,  or  the  steamboat?  Which  one  was  the  last  to 
come  into  use? 

25.  Arrange  these  events  in  the  order  in  which  they  occurred,  by 
putting  a  ''i"  before  the  event  that  occurred  first,  a  "2"  be- 
fore the  event  that  occurred  second,  and  so  on  until  you  have 
put  a  "7"  before  the  event  that  occurred  last. 

. .  .  .Settlement  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony Adoption 

of  the  United  States  Constitution Settlement  of  Jamestown. 

. .  .  .Battle  of  Yorktown Capture  of  New  Amsterdam  by 

the  English Declaration  of  Independence Fall  of 

Quebec. 

29.  Which  of  these  men  were  in  favor  of  a  strong  central  government  ? 

Put  a  check  mark  (v/)  before  their  names John  Adams. 

.  .  .  .Alexander  Hamilton John  C.  Calhoun Benja- 
min Franklin Abraham  Lincoln Thomas  Jefferson. 

....  George     Washington Jeferson    Davis Daniel 

Webster. 

From    Van  Wagenen's  Thought  Scale  B  the  following  are 
typical  of  the  twenty-two  questions: 

I.  During  the  Revolutionary  War,  France  had  helped  the  colonies 
with  both  men  and  ships.  Ten  years  after  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  France  was  again  at  war  with  England. 
What  would  the  French  people  think  the  United  States  ought 
to  do? 

4.  During  the  winter  of  1609-1610  in  the  Jamestown  Colony,  rats, 
mice,  and  snakes  were  relished,  and  fungi  of  various  sorts  were 
eaten.  It  is  even  reported  that  an  Indian  who  had  been  slain 
in  an  assault  upon  the  stockade  was  eaten  by  the  poorer  men. 
What  do  these  statements  show? 

9.  During  the  year  1824,  8,000  immigrants  came  to  America.  Dur- 
ing the  year  1844,  78,000  immigrants  came.  During  the  year 
18^4,  427,000  immigrants  came.  What  do  these  statements 
show  about  immigration? 
15.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  many  of  the  Southern  negroes  would 
not  return  to  work  on  the  plantations  for  pay,  but  wanted  land 
of  their  own.  There  was  also  a  scarcity  of  white  laborers  in 
the  South,  and  but  little  capital  with  which  to  buy  agricultural 
machinery.  What  effect  would  you  expect  these  conditions 
to  have  upon  the  size  of  the  farms  in  the  South? 


392    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

20.  Although  an  agreement  of  peace  was  signed  by  the  commissioners 
of  both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  at  the  City  of 
Ghent  in  the  Netherlands  on  Christmas  Eve,  1814,  the  news 
did  not  reach  America  until  after  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans 
had  been  won  by  the  Americans  on  January  8,  181 5,  with  a 
loss  of  nearly  2,000  soldiers  to  the  British,  (a)  Why  do  you 
think  the  news  was  so  long  in  getting  to  America  ?  (b)  What 
effect  would  this  victory  of  the  American  army  have  upon  the 
arrangements  for  peace? 

Similarly  in  the  geography  tests  space  forbids  reproduction 
of  the  exact  arrangement  on  the  page.  The  Gregory-Spencer 
Geography  Tests,  Form  B,  consist  of  eight  large  quarto  pages. 
Typical  samples  of  the  questions  are  given. 

Check  the  right  word  or  statement: 

I Rice.  ..  .Corn. ..  .Cotton   is   shipped   from    San   Francisco   to 

Kobe,  Japan. 

2 Gold ....  Cotton ....  Pork  is  shipped  from  Bombay  to  Liverpool. 

3 Selvas .  .  .  .Steppes. .  . .  Tundras  are  marshy  plains  in  the  north- 
ern regions. 

4 The  Kiel  Canal ....  The  Suez  Capiat The  Grand  Canal  is  in 

China. 

5 The  Prime  Meridian ....  The  Equator ....  The  Tropic  of  Cancer 

is  the  line  from  which  longitude  is  measured. 

6.  The  capital  of  Chile  is ... .  New  Orleans ....  Sydney ....  Osaka 
.  .  .  .Satitiago,  etc. 

Evaluation  of  Objective  Tests  in  Content  Subjects. — The 

foregoing  tests  in  geography  and  history  are  very  skilfully 
arranged  so  as  to  receive  answers  that  must  be  stated  defi- 
nitely and  unambiguously.  They  can  also  be  scored  quickly 
and  accurately.  It  will  be  noted,  however,  that  they  call 
largely  for  mechanical  memory.  If  pupils  have  not  been 
drilled  on  the  various  facts  called  for,  the  tests  correctly  an' 
swered  would  show  a  wide  range  of  accurate  information. 
If  the  teacher  has  been  aware  that  the  test  would  be  given 
and  has  drilled  the  pupils  on  these  facts,  it  would  not  reveal 
very  broad  or  thoughtful  learning.  It  should  be  noted  also 
that  the  wording  of  many  of  the  questions  does  not  call  for  a 
high  order  of  thinking  or  even  of  fact  memory.  For  example, 
it  is  much  easier  to  answer  " Rice Corn Cot- 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  393 

ton  is  shipped  from  San  Francisco  to  Kobe,  Japan"  than  to 
answer  "Name  the  products  shipped  from  San  Francisco  to 
Kobe,  Japan."  It  is  not  very  difficult  to  select  the  right  an- 
swer from  the  three  following  statements:  "Petroleum  and 
ratural  gases  were  formed  by: decomposition  of  min- 
erals   the  decaying  of  plant  and  animal  bodies 

burning  of  vegetable  matter."  A  much  more  difficult  ques- 
tion would  be:  "Explain  the  origin  of  petroleum  and  natural 
gases."  The  "fact-memory"  type  of  question  has  its  place, 
but  if  limited  to  that  type  instruction  must  become  very 
narrow  and  devoid  of  accurate  independent  thought  reactions. 
They  are  the  type  of  questions  which  educators  have  long 
been  trying  to  supplant  and  supplement  in  order  to  enrich 
the  curriculum.  They  are  entirely  at  variance  with  topical 
teaching,  project  teaching,  and  the  socialized  recitation,  in 
which  there  is  an  attempt  to  get  away  from  the  stereotyped 
forms  of  instruction.  Doctor  Walter  F.  Dearborn,  in  a  recent 
letter  to  the  writer,  expressed  the  same  apprehension.  He 
said  of  certain  arithmetic  tests  that  "unsupported  by  more 
comprehensive  tests,  they  have  at  the  same  time  tended  to 
narrow  the  work  in  the  schoolroom."  He  wrote  further:  "We 
believe  that  the  tests  of  various  kinds  now  in  use  throughout 
the  country  are  shaping  the  work  in  the  schools  and,  there- 
fore, that  unless  the  movement  for  scientific  measurement  is 
to  be  brought  into  disrepute,  the  tests  used  must  fulfil  aims 
in  keeping  with  modern  teaching." 

Difficulties  and  Limitations. — There  are  several  difficulties 
that  will  make  it  impossible  for  the  standardized  scales  to 
ever  entirely  displace  the  ordinary  tests  and  examinations  in 
the  schoolroom.  In  the  first  place,  no  tests  can  be  devised 
that  will  meet  all  needs  at  various  times  in  a  given  subject. 
Each  teacher  must  devise  tests  to  measure  progress  in  the 
particular  feature  of  work  that  has  been  stressed.  For  exam- 
ple, a  given  teacher  may  wish  to  discover  the  diligence  and 
faithfulness  of  a  class  in  the  preparation  of  a  particular  assign- 
ment. Such  factors  are  quite  as  important  as  particular  skill 
or  knowledge.     The  teacher  must  devise  the  test  to  fit  that 


394    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

particular  case.  Of  course,  If  the  teacher  Is  famlHar  with 
standardized  scales  and  methods  of  testing,  the  given  test  will 
be  more  carefully  selected  and  the  results  better  analyzed  than 
If  he  had  no  knowledge  of  them.  Again,  standardized  scales 
can  never  be  kept  abreast  of  the  new  materials  that  should  be 
Incorporated  In  the  curriculum.  To  entirely  measure  a  teach- 
er's success  by  the  standardized  scales  would  often  do  a 
teacher  great  Injustice.  One  teacher  might  have  his  classes 
up  to  a  grade  In  spelling  the  particular  words  of  a  standardized 
scale,  or  up  on  the  addition  of  Integers,  but  have  very  poor 
work  In  history,  music,  or  civics,  because  these  last  are  seldom 
measured  by  standardized  scales.  It  might  be  that  a  teacher 
had  not  secured  the  median  results  with  the  "spelling  demons" 
or  with  the  "borrowing"  process  in  subtraction,  but  she  had 
taken  extra  time  for  Inculcating  much-needed  civic  and  moral 
lessons.  Her  school  might  show  splendid  results  in  the  devel- 
opment of  a  co-operative  spirit,  a  splendid  example  of  the 
development  of  fine,  thoughtful  conduct  so  necessary  in  train- 
ing for  citizenship.  Scales  for  the  testing  of  these  latter  have 
not  been  devised  nor  can  they  be  easily  quantified.  All  the 
scales  test  intellectual  or  motor  results.  They  do  not  test 
emotions  and  morality.  But  these  latter  mean  more  in  citi- 
zenship than  intellectual  accomplishment. 

The  foregoing  is  not  designed  to  discourage  measuring,  but 
merely  to  suggest  that  the  present  tendency  in  scale-making 
and  measurements  may,  if  wrongly  evaluated,  discourage 
effort  in  more  worthy  directions.  It  would  be  desirable  If  the 
results  of  civic  and  moral  education  could  be  accurately  mea- 
sured, and  it  may  be  that  the  present  development  of  the 
measurement  of  intellectual  attainments  may  point  the  way. 
But  let  no  teacher  or  school  be  wholly  judged  by  the  attain- 
ments in  purely  intellectual  achievements.  Many  a  teacher 
whose  pupils  would  score  low  on  "bridging  the  tens"  has  been 
a  veritable  benediction  in  the  lives  of  her  pupils  and  the  com- 
munity. 

Only  a  limited  number  of  subjects  have  been  standardized 
or  can  be  standardized  so  that  all  teachers  can  or  should  mea- 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  395 

sure  their  pupils  by  the  same  tests.  In  geography,  for  exam- 
ple, pupils  living  in  Seattle  ought  to  spend  most  of  their  time 
upon  geography,  either  of  that  locality  or  that  which  is  related 
to  it  in  some  vital  way.  Their  achievements  in  geography 
ought  to  be  very  different  from  those  of  children  living  in 
Buenos  Aires.  All  of  the  geography  tests  thus  far  devised 
would  tend  to  cause  the  beginning  teacher,  or  the  one  who 
knows  that  she  will  be  judged  by  the  results  of  standardized 
scales,  to  centre  upon  "what  will  pay."  The  best  results  of 
geography  teaching  are  determined  (a)  by  the  pupil's  interest 
in  the  subject,  and  (b)  his  ability  to  use  geographical  helps, 
and  to  apply  his  knowledge  to  new  problems.  Projects  in 
geography  should  not  result  so  much  in  stereotyped  examina- 
ble information  as  in  increased  interest  and  power  to  investi- 
gate a  new  situation.  What  standardized  scales  give  different 
values  for  a  project  in  Seattle  or  in  Boston  ?  The  standardized 
scales  all  seem  to  put  a  premium  upon  mere  information  of 
the  old  stereot>'ped  kind  that  we  have  been  trying  to  get  away 
from  as  a  measure  of  geography  study. 

Unless  the  scales  are  changed  frequently,  teachers  and  pu- 
pils naturally  will  collect  them  and  cram  for  them,  and  the 
worst  sort  of  narrowness  will  result.  It  is  noticeably  true  that 
few  of  the  devisers  of  scales  and  standardized  tests  have  pub- 
lished any  relating  to  their  own  subjects.  If  such  scales  are 
valuable,  should  not  every  subject  in  psychology  and  educa- 
tion be  tested  and  measured  by  some  standardized  scales? 
What  teachers  of  those  subjects  would  be  willing  to  restrict 
their  teaching  so  that  their  students  could  be  measured  by 
somebody  else's  scale? 

The  following  comment  by  Wilson  and  Hoke  {How  to 
Measure,  p.  192)  is  very  significant  regarding  the  possibilities 
and  the  limitations  of  standardized  tests  in  tool  subjects  and 
content  subjects: 

The  tool  subjects  of  the  grades  are  being  measured  with  success  and 
with  beneficial  results  on  teaching  and  curricula  making.  Can  the 
content  subjects — such  as  history,  geography,  physiology,  literature, 
nature  study,  and  elementary  science — be  measured  with  equal  sue- 


396         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

cess  and  equally  beneficial  results  ?  The  answer  is  that  many  attempts 
are  being  made,  that  success  has  not  been  attained,  and  that  final 
success  is  still  in  doubt.  A  scientific  test  or  scale  for  grading  a  subject 
is  merely  a  reasonable  examination  which  has  been  carefully  graded 
and  evaluated,  i.  e.,  standardized.  Any  fixed  or  rigid  examination 
scheme  tends  always  to  formalize  the  teaching  of  a  subject.  For  the 
formal  phases  of  the  tool  subjects  this  is  desirable,  assuming  good 
teachers  and  provision  for  adequate  motive.  But  can  we  formalize 
the  teaching  of  a  content  subject  without  undesirable  results,  or  can 
we  apply  standard  tests  to  the  more  formal  information  phases  of  such 
a  subject  without  its  resulting  in  misplaced  emphasis  by  many  teach- 
ers, a  large  majority  of  them?  It  is  very  doubtful.  At  any  rate,  it 
remains  an  open  question. 

Equally  pertinent  is  their  comment  regarding  the  use  of 
standardized  tests  in  high-school  subjects  {How  to  Measure, 
p.  213): 

The  reasons  are:  First,  most  of  the  high-school  subjects  are  not  tool 
subjects.  They  are  of  value  chiefly  because  of  content  and  apprecia- 
tive values.  These  values  are  more  intangible,  more  difficult  to  mea- 
sure, than  the  simple  elements  involved  in  the  tool  subjects.  Second, 
the  old  academic  view-point  that  secondary  work  is  merely  prepara- 
tory is  changing.  The  old  view-point  made  the  mastery  of  subject- 
matter,  as  such,  the  essential  consideration.  The  present  tendency, 
liowever,  is  to  minimize  the  importance  of  high-school  work  as  merely 
preparatory,  to  look  more  toward  use  and  application,  and  to  make  of 
the  high  school  a  real  people's  school  serving  the  broader  airiis  of  edu- 
cation. The  efficiency  of  work  on  this  basis  cannot  be  tested  nearly 
so  well  by  examination  methods.  Even  a  subject  like  mathematics 
does  not  become  a  tool  subject  for  a  large  percentage  of  pupils.  Ap- 
parently, therefore,  appreciative  values  and  an  understanding  of  the 
subject  from  the  standpoint  of  enjoyment  and  perspective  are  just  as 
important  as  the  mere  mastery  of  subject-matter.  Third,  it  is  in  sub- 
jects like  literature  and  history  especially  that  the  fact,  subject-matter 
basis,  is  particularly  undesirable.  Literature,  to  be  effective  and  to 
carry  over  into  later  life,  must  be  taught  on  a  basis  of  appreciation  and 
enjoyment.  It  does  not  lend  itself  to  rigid  testing.  History,  likewise, 
deals  with  life  problems,  which  depend  for  their  development  upon 
present-day  problems,  pupil  interests,  community  contacts,  and  teach- 
ing equipment.  So  that  any  attempt  to  reduce  history  to  a  mere 
mechanical  basis  renders  it  of  little  value. 

In  short,  standard  tests  and  scales  have  proven  of  value  chiefly  in 
measuring  the  tool  subjects  and  the  mastery  of  subject-matter.  The 
high-school  curriculum  has  many  other  values,-  some  of  which  are  pos- 


COMPARING  ACHIEVEMENT  397 

sibly  even  more  important  than  the  strictly  measurable  ones.  It  will 
be  worth  while,  however,  to  note  the  development  of  scales  in  high- 
school  subjects  in  so  far  as  they  have  developed. 

Pupils*  Interest  in  Scales. — One  of  the  noteworthy  results 
of  the  use  of  scales  in  measuring  achievement  in  various  school 
subjects  has  been  the  interest  which  pupils  have  taken  in  the 
tests  and  results.  They  have  compared  the  achievements  of 
individuals  with  other  individuals,  with  the  class  scores  and 
also  with  the  standardized  scores  secured  by  the  wide  use  of 
given  tests.  Teachers  have  also  been  put  on  their  mettle  to 
enable  their  pupils  to  reach  or  exceed  the  standard  scores. 
There  is  a  question  whether  sometimes  undue  effort  may  not 
be  diverted  from  other  important  work  to  the  drill  in  types  of 
skill  required  in  the  standardized  tests. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Distinguish  between  tests  of  intelligence  and  tests  of  achievement. 
2.  Why  is  a  "standardized"  test  more  accurate  than  an  ordinary  test  or 
examination?  3.  Is  a  standardized  test  always  more  valid  as  a  measure 
of  progress  than  a  test  made  by  the  teacher  who  has  given  the  particular 
work?  4.  What  use  would  you  make  of  a  standardized  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  or  spelling  test  in  a  given  class?  5.  How  are  standardized  test 
norms  derived?  6.  Will  given  norms  remain  permanent?  7.  If  pupils 
score  high  on  a  given  standardized  test,  does  it  mean  that  the  content  is 
worth  while?  What  will  determine  the  value  of  the  content?  8,  How 
can  we  determine  whether  a  given  test  is  a  good  one?  9.  Should  teachers 
be  rated  by  the  scores  made  by  their  pupils  in  standardized  tests?  10. 
Mention  several  of  the  best  standardized  tests  in  arithmetic,  spelling,  silent 
reading,  handwriting,  algebra.  11.  Is  it  equally  easy  to  construct  good 
standardized  tests  in  all  subjects?     Explain. 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Brooks,  Improving  Schools  hy  Standard  Tests.     Entire  book. 

2.  Cameron,  Psychology  and  the  School,  chaps.  XVI,  XVII,  XVIII,  XIX. 

3.  McCall,  How  to  Measure  in  Education,  chaps.  IV,  V. 

4.  Monroe,  The  Theory  of  Educational  Measurements.     Entire  book. 

5.  Monroe,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly,  Educational  Tests  and  Measurements.    En- 

tire book. 

6.  Parker,  Methods  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools,  chap.  XXII. 

7.  Pressey,  Introduction  to  the  Use  of  Standard  Tests.     Entire  book. 

8.  Starch,  Educational  Measurements.     Entire  book. 

9.  Strayer  and  Englehardt,  The  Classroom  Teacher,  chap.  XIX. 

10.  Strong,  Introductory  Psychology  for  Teachers,  lesson  29. 

11.  Wilson  and  Hoke,  How  to  Measure.     Entire  book. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
PROPHESYING  PERFORMANCE 

Prophecy  has  always  been  a  fascinating  pastime.  Because 
of  the  uncertainty  and  unreUabiHty,  only  occasional  individ- 
uals acquire  a  great  reputation  for  their  prophecies.  Because 
of  the  mystery  connected  with  prophecy,  it  has  always  been 
fascinating,  and  therefore  many  believe  in  prophecy.  Scien- 
tific prophecy,  however,  is  of  recent  development.  In  fact,  all 
scientific  principles  include  implied  predictability,  or,  in  other 
words,  prophecy.  A  scientific  law  simply  means  that  under 
certain  conditions  certain  results  will  follow. 

Predictability  of  human  conduct  is  a  science  in  its  infancy. 
Undoubtedly  every  individual  human  action  is  determined  by 
a  sequence  of  previous  actions,  and  the  order  is  definite. 
Nothing  happens  or  comes  by  chance.  If  the  exact  relations 
between  effects  and  causes  in  human  conduct  could  be  worked 
out,  and  then  if  a  given  sequence  of  causes  were  known,  effects 
could  be  foretold  with  absolute  certainty.  Of  course  in  the 
main  that  is  utterly  impossible.  But  in  certain  limited  lines 
the  sequences  have  been  studied  so  that  a  fair  degree  of  predic- 
tability is  possible  through  scientific  means. 

It  would  be  of  very  great  value  if  we  could  know  whether 
an  individual  retains  the  same  degree  of  mental  power  through 
life.  That  is,  does  the  I.  Q.  remain  constant  through  life  in 
a  given  individual  ?  If  true,  the  possibilities  of  the  individual 
could  be  determined  on  entering  school  and  his  work  gauged 
accordingly.  Terman  writes  {Intelligence  of  School  Children, 
p.  149)  that 

The  I.  Q.  is  sufficiently  constant  to  make  it  a  practical  and  service- 
able basis  for  mental  classification.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  infalli- 
ble. A  single  test  does  not  give  us  certainty,  but  merely  a  high  degree 
of  probability.  While  the  I.  Q.  it  yields  is  extremely  valuable  in  the 
tentative  classification  of  children,  it  needs  to  be  checked  up  by  supple- 

398 


PROPHESYING  PERFORMANCE  399 

mentary  data  and  by  retests.  In  certain  types  of  pathological  subjects, 
the  I.  Q.  may  undergo  large  fluctuations.  Epileptics,  for  example, 
frequently  deteriorate  from  something  like  normality  to  middle-grade 
deficiency  in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 

That  rough  prediction  is  now  possible  on  the  basis  of  intelligence 
tests  can  no  longer  be  denied.  For  example,  it  is  a  fairly  safe  pre- 
diction that  the  child  who  has  been  competently  tested  by  the  Binet 
scale  and  found  to  have  an  I.  Q.  of  75  will  never  attain  an  I.  Q.  of  125, 
or  that  an  I.  Q.  of  125  will  never,  barring  definite  nervous  disease,  drop 
to  75.  No  one  would  now  expect  a  child  with  an  I.  Q.  of  60  or  70  to  be 
able  to  graduate  from  an  average  high  school  or  pursue  a  college  course. 
These  predictions  are,  of  course,  very  rough,  but  it  is  worth  something 
to  know  that,  in  general,  there  is  even  a  tendency  for  the  superior  to 
remain  superior,  for  the  average  to  remain  average,  and  for  the  inferior 
to  remain  inferior.  ("Mental  Growth  and  the  I.  Q.,"  Jour,  of  Educ. 
Psych.,  13:  325-  1921.) 

Terman,  Rugg  and  CoUoton,  and  Poull  present  a  large 
amount  of  data  {Jour,  of  Educ.  Psych.,  vol.  12,  September, 
1921)  supporting  the  contention  that  the  I.  Q.  Is  practically 
constant.  Studies  are  cited  to  show  that  several  retests  of 
the  same  Individuals  show  essentially  the  same  I.  Q.  at  suc- 
cessive periods.  In  general,  all  the  studies  seem  to  show  a 
slight  Increase  In  the  I.  Q.  with  Increasing  age.  Doll,  Sten- 
qulst  and  Fermon,  and  Garrison  question  this  conclusion. 
(Doll,  Psychological  Monographs,  vol.  29,  No.  2,  1921;  Garri- 
son, "The  Fluctuation  of  Intelligence,"  School  and  Societyy 
June,  1921;  Fermon,  "Validity  of  I.  Q.  as  Established  by  Re- 
tests," Thesis,  Columbia  University,  1920;  Stenqulst,  "Unre- 
liability of  Individual  and  Group  Intelligence  Tests,"  unpub- 
lished.) 

Undoubtedly  Terman  Is  correct  In  the  main.  A  bright  child 
will  continue  to  be  bright  If  ordinary  environmental  condi- 
tions prevail;  a  dull  child  will  remain  dull  no  matter  what 
the  conditions;  and  the  feeble-minded  are  doomed  to  a  life  of 
feeble-mlndedness.  However,  we  must  make  a  variety  of 
tests  covering  a  sufficient  variety  of  conditions,  so  as  to  be 
sure  that  we  know  that  the  child  Is  bright  or  dull.  Limited 
tests  under  adverse  emotional  or  health  conditions  might  In- 
dicate hopeless  dulness,  or  limited  tests  that  chanced  to  test 


400    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

a  special  quality,  like  mechanical  memory,  or  to  call  for  spe- 
cial information,  might  suggest  precocity  in  an  average  child. 

Also,  much  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  fact  of  un- 
evenness  of  growth  of  different  individuals  and  of  the  various 
powers  of  each  individual.  It  would  probably  be  correct  to 
say  that  each  individual's  M.  Q.  (motor  quotient)  is  fairly 
constant,  but  every  one  knows  that  there  are  many  fluctua- 
tions depending  upon  conditions  of  development  and  health. 
Again,  much  depends  upon  the  persons  making  the  tests.  A 
personal  equation  in  deciding  the  validity  of  an  answer  is  no 
small  factor  in  all  intelligence  testing. 

A  few  studies  have  been  made  to  discover  whether  there  is 
any  correlation  between  intelligence  ratings  and  school  grades 
in  various  studies.  The  results  are  not  uniform  and  are  some- 
what conflicting.  In  all  probability  a  hundred  pupils  scoring 
high  with  the  intelligence  tests  would  achieve  much  higher 
grades  in  their  studies  than  a  hundred  others  with  low  intelli- 
gence scores.     A  few  studies  will  be  mentioned. 

Proctor  found  that  pupils  with  low  I.  Q.'s  drop  out  of  high 
school  in  greater  numbers  than  those  with  a  high  I.  Q.,  al- 
though a  high  I.  Q.  is  not  necessarily  a  guarantee  of  success. 
He  says: 

There  are  good  grounds  for  the  prediction  that  75  per  cent  of  those 
who  test  below  average,  mentally,  will  fail  in  more  than  one-half  of 
their  studies  during  their  first  year  of  high  school;  that  50  per  cent  of 
them  will  leave  school  to  go  to  work  during  the  first  two  years;  and 
that  none  of  them  will  remain  to  graduate.  {Psychological  Tests  and 
Guidance  of  High  School  Pupils,  p.  23.) 

Professor  William  F.  Book,  director  of  the  Psychological 
Laboratory  of  the  University  of  Indiana,  has  just  recently 
completed  a  state-wide  study  of  the  intelligence  of  high-school 
seniors  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  The  results  have  been  pub- 
lished in  book  form.  He  says  {The  Intelligence  of  High  School 
Seniors,  pp.  93-110): 

It  has  been  generally  assumed  that  students  possessing  a  superior 
or  very  superior  grade  of  intelligence  can  and  will  do  a  superior  grade 
of  school  work.     On  this  theory  intelligence  tests  have  recently  been 


PROPHESYING   PERFORMANCE  401 

used  by  certain  universities  in  place  of  the  usual  college  entrance  ex- 
aminations, and  candidates  are  being  selected  for  university  scholar- 
ships on  the  basis  of  the  records  they  make  on  intelligence  tests. 
Pupils  in  the  public  schools  have  also  been  doubly  promoted  by  pro- 
gressive teachers  and  superintendents  merely  on  the  basis  of  the 
strength  shown  in  intelligence  tests. 

In  most  of  these  cases  such  students  have  been  successful  in  their 
academic  work  .  .  .  but  data  recently  gathered  by  our  own  labora- 
tory indicate  pretty  clearly  that  other  mental  characteristics  besides 
intelligence  are  important  factors  in  determining  school  success.  The 
foregoing  data  show  that  we  have  no  right  to  expect  a  student  to  do 
a  very  superior  type  of  school  or  college  work  merely  because  he  pos- 
sesses a  high  degree  of  native  mental  endowment.  He  must  possess 
additional  characteristics,  such  as  persistence,  a  proper  attitude 
toward  his  teacher  and  the  school,  endurance,  health,  and  the  like, 
to  be  successful  with  his  school  work.  All  the  factors  which  contribute 
to  a  pupil's  success  or  failure  in  school  are  not  known.  When  deter- 
mined, they  will  probably  show  that  general  intelligence  is  insufficient 
to  guarantee  an  individual's  school  success.  .  .  .  The  evidence  seems 
to  indicate  that  we  are  not  in  reality  measuring  the  same  thing  when 
we  test  for  intelligence  and  school  success.  .  .  .  The  correlation  be- 
tween intelligence  scores  and  scholastic  success  in  school  is  not  very 
high.  ...  If  taken  for  individual  cases,  intelligence  scores  are  poor 
criteria  for  predicting  the  kind  and  amount  of  school  success  that  will 
be  attained.  .  .  .  Mere  ability  to  learn  and  do  are  not  synonymous 
with  actual  performance.  .  .  .  Because  a  pupil  has  the  ability  to 
learn  or  do  his  school  work,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  he  will  do  it. 
...  A  mere  intelligence  test  is  evidently  no  criterion  for  what  a 
pupil  will  do  in  school. 

Correlation  between  Grades  in  Different  Subjects. — Some 
studies  have  also  been  made  of  the  correlation  between  grades 
received  in  a  given  subject  and  those  received  in  other  sub- 
jects taken  at  or  near  the  same  time.  It  is  very  frequently 
asserted  by  some  that  if  a  pupil  stands  well  or  poorly  in  a 
given  subject  it  is  quite  certain  that  he  will  have  correspond- 
ing marks  in  other  subjects.  If  differences  appear,  they  are 
frequently  attributed  to  the  inability  of  teachers  to  mark 
fairly. 

A  study  made  by  one  of  the  writer's  students,  Miss  Mabel 
Foster,  when  she  was  a  teacher  in  the  Iowa  City,  Iowa,  High 
School,  is  given  in  the  accompanying  tables. 


402         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 


ALGEBRA 


TABLE  I 

TABLE  n 

E 

G 

M 

P 

F 

E 

G 

M 

P 

F 

Lat 

53 
39 
44 
54 
i8 

39 

55 
69 

38 
50 
51 
41 
69 
45 
33 
25 

6 
10 
5 
4 
14 
15 
12 

5 

0 
0 
0 

3 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 

3 
0 

I 

0 

13 
26 

13 
22 
29 
20 
26 
44 
49 
41 

19 

38 
37 
23 
41 
II 
27 
23 

9 
14 
22 

23 

18 

6 

2 

6 

58 
23 
12 

33 

13 

39 

9 

4 

Ene 

sd  :.:::;: 

Hist 

M.  Tr 

Draw 

Arith 

Dep             

GEOMETRY 


TABLE  III 

TABLE  IV 

E 

G 

M 

P 

F 

E 

G 

M 

P 

F 

Lat 

45 
30 
42 
40 

54 
32 
63 
50 

48 

53 
48 
46 
27 
68 
33 
41 

4 

II 

8 

10 

16 

0 

4 

9 

3 
6 
I 
3 
3 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 

I 
I 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 

I 
I 
0 
6 
5 

17 
18 

25 
12 

17 
14 

23 
27 
58 
40 

46 

41 
18 

24 

25 
43 
25 
28 

16 
16 
36 
25 
17 
15 
0 
8 

13 
30 
26 
37 
29 
10 
0 
6 

Sci            

Hist            

Eng 

Ger        

M    Tr 

Draw           

Deo              

Table  I  includes  pupils  marked  E  (Excellent)  in  algebra.     It  shows  the  percentage  of  them  who 
received  E*,  G,  M,  P,  F  in  each  of  the  subjects  indicated. 

Table  II  includes  pupils  marked  F  (Failed)  in  algebra.     It  shows  the  percentage  of  them  who 
received  E,  G,  M,  P,  F  in  each  of  the  subjects  indicated. 

Table  III  includes  pupils  marked  E  (Excellent)  in  geometry.     It  shows  the  percentage  of  them 
who  received  E,  G,  M,  P,  F  in  each  of  the  subjects  indicated. 

Table  IV  includes  pupils  marked  F  (Failed)  in  geometry.     It  shows  the    percentage  of  them 
who  received  E,  G,  M,  P,  F  in  each  of  the  subjects  indicated. 

*  E— Excellent,  G— Good,  M— Medium,  P— Poor,  F— Failed. 

The  grades  of  all  pupils  who  had  received  E  (Excellent)  in 
algebra  and  geometry  were  compared  with  their  grades  in 
other  subjects  which  they  had  taken  in  high  school.  Simi- 
larly, the  grades  of  all  who  had  failed  in  algebra  and  geometry 
were  compared  with  their  grades  in  other  subjects.  The 
tables  show  that  pupils  who  received  high  marks  in  algebra 
and  geometry  were  more  likely  to  receive  fair  or  high  grades 
in  other  subjects.  However,  there  were  many  individual  vari- 
ations, thus  making  it  impossible  to  say  absolutely  that  a 
given  pupil  who  ranks  high  or  low  in  a  given  subject  will  cer- 
tainly have  a  similar  rank  in  other  subjects. 


PROPHESYING   PERFORMANCE  403 

Correlation  between  Grades  in  Lower  Schools  and  in 
Higher. — Quite  a  number  of  studies  have  been  made  of  the 
correlation  between  grades  received  in  the  elementary  school 
and  in  the  high  school,  also  between  those  received  in  the 
high  school  and  college.  To  a  lesser  extent  the  correlation  be- 
tween success  in  school  achievement  and  in  life  after  college 
has  been  studied.  A  few  of  the  most  important  studies  will 
be  cited. 

Dearborn  compared  the  high-school  grades  of  472  pupils 
from  eight  Wisconsin  high  schools  with  their  grades  at  the 
University  of  Wisconsin.  {The  Relative  Standing  of  Pupils  in 
the  High  School  and  in  the   University,  1909.) 

He  studied  ''all  those  who  entered  from  the  eight  high 
schools  during  the  years  1900  to  1905,  inclusive.  The  basis 
of  comparison  is  the  general  average  of  the  marks  secured  by 
each  pupil  in  high  school  and  in  the  first  two  years  of  the 
university."  A  group  of  180  students  included  in  the  472 
were  followed  throughout  the  four  years  at  the  university 
also.  The  comparison  is  made  of  this  last  group  between 
the  standing  in  high  school  and  the  standing  in  each  of  the 
four  years  at  the  university.     (Pp.  lo-ii.) 

He  says  (p.  19) : 

Of  these  472  pupils,  only  5  who  stood  in  the  lowest  quartile  of  the 
group  on  entrance  succeeded  in  reaching  the  rank  of  the  first  quartile, 
and  they  secured  only  the  lowest  grade  in  the  quartile;  similarly,  but 
5  of  those  who  entered  in  the  first  quarter  of  this  large  group  dropped 
to  the  lowest  quarter  during  the  freshman  year,  and  they  stood  in  the 
highest  grade  of  this  quartile.  .  .  . 

And  the  opposite  facts  are  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  true;  the  chances 
are  but  about  one  in  five  that  the  student  who  has  done  poorly  in 
high-school  work — who  has  been  in  the  lowest  quarter  of  his  class — 
will  rise  above  the  median  or  average  of  the  freshman  class  at  the 
university,  and  the  chances  that  he  will  prove  a  superior  student  at 
the  university  are  very  slim  indeed. 

The  striking  facts  about  this  comparison  are,  first,  the  extent  to 
which  those  who  were  in  the  first  quarter  of  this  group  in  high  school 
maintain  relatively  the  same  position  in  the  freshman  year,  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  somewhat  less-marked  tendency  of  the  lowest  quarter  of 
the  high-school  class  to  be  limited  to  the  last  two  quartiles  of  the 


404    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

freshman  year.  The  interchange  between  the  middle  quartiles  is,  as 
remarked  above,  much  more  extensive. 

What  is  true  of  the  standing  of  students  in  the  high  school  holds  in 
just  about  the  same  proportions  throughout  the  sophomore  and  junior 
years.  About  ninety -three  students  have  dropped  out  of  the  freshman 
group  before  the  sophomore  year.  .  .  . 

From  an  inspection  of  this  first  series  of  charts  we  are  justified  in 
drawing  the  general  conclusions  that  those  students  who  are  the  best 
scholars  in  the  high  school  are,  usually,  the  best  in  the  university,  and, 
similarly,  that  the  poor  scholars  in  the  high  school  tend  to  remain  so  in 
the  university.  (Pp.  21,  22.)  .  .  .  This  investigation  indicates  very 
clearly  that  the  previous  rank  of  pupils  in  the  accredited  school  fur- 
nishes a  satisfactory  means  for  forecasting  the  likelihood  of  successful 
work  at  the  university.     (P.  44.) 

He  says  (p.  41)  that 

A  little  over  80  per  cent  of  those  who  were  in  the  lowest  or  highest 
quarter  of  the  group  in  the  high  school  are  found  in  their  respective 
halves  of  the  group  throughout  the  university.  .  .  .  We  may  say, 
then,  on  the  basis  of  the  results  secured  in  this  group,  which  is  suffi- 
ciently large  to  be  representative,  that  if  a  pupil  has  stood  in  the  first 
quarter  of  a  large  class  through  the  high  school,  the  chances  are  four 
out  of  five  that  he  will  not  fall  below  the  first  half  of  his  class  in  the 
university.  (It  may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  versed  in  statistics 
to  add  that  the  Pearson  coefficient  of  correlation  of  the  standing  in 
high  schools  and  in  the  freshman  year  of  472  pupils  is  plus  80  per  cent.) 
(P.  21.)  ...  Rank  in  high  school  has,  therefore,  as  is  to  be  expected, 
a  definite  relation  to  the  question  of  elimination  in  the  university.  It 
is  evident  from  these  results  that  a  student  entering  the  university 
from  these  schools  with  a  rank  or  general  average  of  85,  or  above,  for 
example,  is  much  more  likely  to  continue  through  freshman  year  than 
one  whose  high-school  rank  was  below  85.  In  this  case,  there  were 
244  (56.9  per  cent)  of  the  group  who  attained  this  or  a  higher  rank  in 
high  school,  but  29,  or  12  per  cent,  of  them  drop  out  during  freshman 
year,  whereas  of  the  remaining  228,  64,  or  27.5  per  cent,  are  eliminated. 
(Pp.  39,  40.) 

Dearborn  found  that  many  more  of  those  entering  with  low 
standings  were  eliminated  from  the  university  during  their 
freshman  year  than  of  those  who  entered  with  high  standings. 
He  says: 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  larger  number  who  drop  out  are  found 
in  the  lower  quartiles.  Out  of  the  group  of  472,  93,  or  19.7  per  cent, 
leave  during  freshman  year,  and  43,  or  12  per  cent,  during  sophomore 


PROPHESYING   PERFORMANCE  405 

year,  showing  a  total  of  136,  or  31,7  per  cent,  eliminations  in  the  two 
years.  In  other  words,  about  one-third  of  the  group  were  eliminated 
in  the  first  two  years  of  college. 

About  50  per  cent  of  these  are  from  the  lowest  quarter  of  the  class, 
23  per  cent  and  17  per  cent  from  the  third  and  second  quarters,  respec- 
tively, and  less  than  10  per  cent  from  the  first  quarter.  Similar  per- 
centages hold  in  the  high-school  quartiles.  .  .  .  Only  15  per  cent  of 
those  eliminated  in  freshman  year  were  in  the  first  quarter  of  their 
high-school  classes,  whereas  42  per  cent  of  them  were  in  the  lowest 
quarter  of  the  high-school  class.  The  eliminations  of  the  sophomore 
year  are  much  less  dependent  on  high-school  standing,  and  correspond 
more  closely  with  the  university  standing. 

Walter  R.  Miles  {Pedagogical  Seminary,  December,  1910), 
one  of  the  writer's  students,  made  a  comparison  of  the  grades 
of  pupils  in  the  elementary  schools  and  in  the  high  school. 
That  study  revealed  in  a  definite  way  that  there  is  a  high 
degree  of  correlation  between  the  accomplishment  of  pupils  in 
the  lower  schools  and  in  the  high  school.  That  would  not  be 
expected  as  much  as  betw^een  the  grades  attained  in  the  high 
school  and  in  the  university.  Between  the  high-school  period 
and  the  university  period  of  study,  there  is  not  as  great  a 
developmental  change,  and  habits  and  methods  of  study  have 
become  more  fixed.  He  compared  the  records  of  106  pupils 
during  the  last  four  years  of  the  elementary  school  with  their 
records  during  the  four  years  of  high  school.  He  was  able  to 
follow  fourteen  of  them  into  their  university  work.  While 
this  group  was  too  small  to  furnish  conclusive  evidence,  the 
results  are  corroborative  of  those  obtained  by  Dearborn, 
Smith,  and  others,  and  are  quite  significant. 

Another  one  of  the  writer's  students,  Franklin  O.  Smith, 
made  a  study  of  the  high-school  and  university  grades  of  120 
students.  ("A  Rational  Basis  for  Determining  Fitness  for 
College,"  Pedagogical  Seminary,  19:  137-153,  June,  1912.) 
He  followed  much  the  same  plan  as  Dearborn,  but  instead  of 
dividing  the  entire  group  into  quartiles,  he  divided  it  into 
quintiles  (fifths). 

He  says: 

On  the  basis  of  the  general  averages  in  the  high  school  and  in  the 
university  it  is  seen  (Table  I)  that  more  than  one-half  (54  per  cent) 


4o6    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 


of  the  pupils  who  were  in  the  first  or  highest  quintile  in  the  high-school 
grouping  remain  in  the  corresponding  quintile  in  the  university  group- 
ing, and  that  somewhat  less  than  half  (42  per  cent)  of  those  in  the 
fifth  or  lowest  quintile  in  the  high-school  grouping  are  in  the  same 
quintile  in  the  university  grouping.  Furthermore,  29  per  cent  of 
those  in  the  first  quintile  are  in  the  upper  half  of  that  quintile,  while 
only  16.5  per  cent  of  those  in  the  lowest  quintile  are  in  the  lower  half 
of  that  quintile.  That  is,  12.5  per  cent  more  pupils  move  up  from  the 
lowest  positions  in  the  high  school  to  relatively  higher  positions  in 
the  university  than  move  down  from  the  highest  to  relatively  lower 
positions. 

DISTRIBUTION  BY  QUINTILES 
General  Averages,  University 


HIGH   SCHOOL 


1ST   Q. 

% 


2D    Q. 

% 


3D  Q- 


4TH    Q. 

% 


5TH   Q. 

% 


1st  q 
2d  q. 
3d  q- 
4th  q 
5th  q 


54 
25 
16.6 

o 

4 


16.6 
29 
25 
25 
4 


16.6 
16.6 
21 

25 
21 


4 

12.5 
21 

33-3 
29 


8 

16.6 
16.6 
16.6 

42 


Foster  says  {Should  Students  Study  ?,  pp.  28,  29) : 

We  may  take,  for  example,  all  the  students  who  graduated  from 
Harvard  College  during  a  period  of  twelve  years  and  entered  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School.  Of  the  239  who  received  no  distinction  as 
undergraduates,  36  per  cent  graduated  with  honor  from  the  Medical 
School.  Of  the  41  who  received  degrees  of  A.B.  with  high  honor,  more 
than  92  per  cent  took  their  medical  degrees  with  honor. 

Still  more  conclusive  are  the  records  of  the  graduates  of  Harvard 
College  who  during  a  period  of  twenty  years  entered  the  Harvard  Law 
School.  Of  those  who  graduated  from  college  with  no  special  honor, 
only  6>^  per  cent  attained  distinction  in  the  Law  School.  Of  those 
who  graduated  with  honor  from  the  college,  22  per  cent  attained  dis- 
tinction in  the  Law  School;  of  those  who  graduated  with  great  honor, 
40  per  cent;  and  of  those  who  graduated  with  highest  honor,  60  per 
cent.  Sixty  per  cent !  Bear  that  figure  in  mind  a  moment,  while  we 
consider  the  340  who  enter  college  "with  conditions" — that  is  to  say, 
without  having  passed  all  their  entrance  examinations — and  graduated 
from  college  with  plain  degrees.  Of  these  men,  not  3  per  cent  won  honor 
degrees  in  law.  .  .  . 

So  difficult  is  it  for  a  student  to  change  his  habits  of  life  after  the 
crucial  years  of  college  that  not  one  man  in  twenty  years — not  one 


PROPHESYING   PERFORMANCE  407 

man  in  twenty  years — who  was  satisfied  in  Harvard  College  with 
grades  of  "C"  and  lower  gained  distinction  in  the  studies  of  the  Har- 
vard Law  School. 

The  same  relation  appears  to  persist  between  the  promise  of  Yale 
undergraduates  and  their  performance  in  the  Harvard  Law  School. 
If  we  divide  the  250  graduates  of  Yale  who  received  their  degrees  in 
law  at  Cambridge  between  1900  and  191 5  into  nine  groups,  according 
to  undergraduate  scholarship,  beginning  with  those  who  won  the  high- 
est "senior  appointments"  at  Yale  and  ending  with  those  who  received 
no  graduation  honors,  we  find  that  the  first  group  did  the  best  work 
in  their  studies  of  law,  the  second  group  next,  the  third  group  next, 
and  so  on,  in  the  same  order,  with  but  a  single  exception,  at  the  bottom 
of  the  list.  The  performance  at  Harvard  of  each  of  the  eight  groups 
of  Yale  honor  graduates  was  in  precise  accordance  with  the  promise 
of  their  records  at  Yale. 

President  Lowell,  of  Harvard,  has  studied  the  records  of 
Harvard  students  from  1895  to  1901  who  graduated  first  from 
Harvard  College  and  then  later  graduated  from  the  Law 
School  or  the  Medical  School  in  the  same  university.  He 
concluded  that  the  grades  attained  in  the  college  are  fairly 
indicative  of  the  rank  the  same  men  will  receive  in  the  pro- 
fessional school.  "The  men  who  are  destined  to  take  the 
highest  rank  in  the  law  and  medical  schools  are  markedly  bet- 
ter scholars,  both  in  the  preparatory  schools  and  in  college, 
than  their  fellows.  In  intellectual  power,  as  in  other  things, 
the  boy  is  father  to  the  man." 

Doctor  Alexander  C.  Roberts,  one  of  my  students,  recently 
made  an  extended  study  of  the  predictive  value  of  intelligence 
tests  and  high-school  records  in  relation  to  university  achieve- 
ment of  a  group  of  students  rating  "D"  and  "E"  on  intelH- 
gence  tests.*  He  has  kindly  furnished  me  a  summary  In  the 
following  statement: 

Summary  of  Factors  in  the  Prediction  of  University  Scholarship. — 
This  study  leads  conclusively  to  the  fact  that  no  one  measure  of  stu- 
dent ability  is  adequate  in  prognosis  of  academic  success  at  the  uni- 
versity. The  high-school  scholarship  record  is  the  best  single  mea- 
sure, but  various  studies  indicate  that  the  high-school  record  is  far 
from  accurate  as  a  sole  basis  of  prediction.     A  progressive  scheme  of 

*  Bulletin^  University  of  Washington. 


4o8    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

intelligence  testing  is  at  present  the  best  supplement  to  scholarship 
records.  This  study  of  581  "D"  and  "E"  students,  the  lowest  15 
per  cent  in  the  intelligence  ratings  at  the  university,  shows  that  the 
*'D"  and  ''E"  students  have  exactly  five  and  one-half  times  more 
probability  of  failure  than  has  the  student  from  the  groups  above. 
Furthermore,  any  adequate  system  of  admission  must  attempt  to 
secure  a  reliable  estimation  of  character  traits — ambition,  persever- 
ance, determination,  optimism,  idealism,  etc.,  for  we  have  found  plain 
inferences  that  highly  desirable  character  traits  carry  many  mediocre 
students  to  scholastic  success  and  undesirable  character  traits  wreck 
the  accomplishments  of  brilliant  students.  INIuch  maladjustment  may 
be  avoided  through  proper  reports  upon  the  special  activities,  interests, 
and  abilities  of  those  students  who  have  brilliance  or  high  skills  but 
very  narrow  interests  and  talents.  And  finally  the  record  of  failures 
in  high  school  is  an  accessible  and  predictive  factor  of  great  value. 
This  study  indicates  that  students  of  only  moderate  mental  ability 
who  have  not  failed  in  any  high-school  subject  have  a  chance  of  two 
and  one-half  times  greater  that  they  will  not  fail  in  any  university 
subject  than  that  they  will  fail  in  as  much  as  one-fifth  of  their  univer- 
sity work.  One  or  two  semesters  of  failure  in  high  school  make  little 
difference,  but  the  students  who  come  to  the  university  with  records 
of  three  or  more  semesters  of  high-school  failure  have  three  times 
greater  probability  of  failing  in  one-fifth  or  more  of  their  university 
work  than  they  have  of  failing  in  no  university  subject. 

It  is  possible  to  predict  closely  the  academic  success  of  students 
entering  the  university,  and  the  bases  of  prediction  are  these:  i.  The 
high-school  record  of  subjects  passed.  2.  The  high-school  record  of 
subjects  failed.  3.  The  high-school  record  of  activities,  interests,  and 
talents.  4.  The  best  subjective  estimation  of  several  high-school 
teachers  upon  character  traits.  5.  An  intelligence  rating  determined 
in  a  scientific  manner  either  in  high  school  or  at  the  beginning  of  the 
university  career.  6.  An  evaluation  of  the  university  marks  of  the 
first  quarter  in  the  light  of  all  these  other  measures. 

Foster  {Should  Students  Study  ?)  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
class  of  1894  in  Harvard  College  to  discover  the  relation  be- 
tween grades  in  college  and  success  in  later  life.  Twenty- 
three  men  were  considered  by  competent  judges  to  have  at- 
tained distinguished  success  in  later  life.  A  comparison 
showed  that  those  twenty-three  men  had  received  196  "A's" 
in  college,  while  twenty-three  other  men  selected  at  random 
had  received  but  56  "A's."  A  study  made  at  the  University 
of  Oregon  showed  that  of  the  highly  successful  graduates  53 


PROPHESYING   PERFORMANCE  409 

per  cent  had  been  good  students  and  only  12  per  cent  weak 
students.  Among  the  graduates  who  were  considered  as  un- 
successful, 52  per  cent  had  been  weak  students  and  only  12 
per  cent  had  been  good  students. 

Similar  studies  from  Bowdoin,  Wesleyan,  Yale,  and  Oxford 
all  show  that  high-grade  students  generally  become  successful 
men  and  low-grade  students  have  much  less  possibility  of 
achieving  success  in  later  life.  A  study  of  Who's  Who  shows 
that  the  majority  of  persons  therein  listed  were  high-grade 
students  in  college. 

Hollingworth  {Vocational  Psychology,  p.  205)  says: 

On  the  whole,  then,  all  these  studies  point  in  a  consistent  direction; 
those  who  are  destined  to  achieve  distinction  and  success  begin  to  do 
so  at  an  early  age.  Whether  measured  by  achievement  in  academic 
courses,  honors  in  professional  and  technical  courses,  salary  earned 
after  graduation,  or  inclusion  among  Hsts  and  directories  of  eminent 
men,  success  in  later  life  is  suggested  by  success  in  the  early  work  of 
the  school  curriculum.  In  spite  of  frequent  comments  to  the  contrary, 
the  school  curriculum  would  seem  to  constitute  a  useful  test  in  prog- 
nosticating at  least  the  most  probable  qualities  of  the  individual's 
later  work. 

This  does  not  mean  that  students  could  not  change  the  pace 
at  which  they  are  going.  Of  course  the  dawdler  may  have 
ability  to  go  faster,  but  the  habit  of  dawdling  has  become  so 
fixed  that  the  chances  are  that  the  pace  at  which  he  is  now 
running  will  be  the  pace  at  which  he  runs  later  in  life. 

I  have  no  statistics  to  prove  my  opinions  concerning  the 
correspondence  between  the  gait  at  which  my  classmates  in 
college  were  going  and  their  later  performance,  but  rough  ob- 
servation seems  to  show  me  that  those  who  were  hard-work- 
ing, persistent  students  are  now  the  ones  who  are  accomplish- 
ing things  in  life,  and  those  who  were  dawdling  and  frittering 
their  time  away  are  now  doing  essentially  the  same  type  of 
thing.  Of  course  there  are  notable  exceptions.  But  the  col- 
lege journal  is  wrong  when  it  says:  "Never  mind,  the  student 
who  is  loafing  now  will  be  the  man  of  distinction  to-morrow, 
and  the  poor  grind  will  be  left  behind  in  life's  race."     Facts 


4IO    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

do  not  bear  out  any  such  conclusion.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
said:  *'By  45  one  must  have  carved  his  name  on  the  scroll  of 
fame  or  shut  up  his  jack-knife." 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  What  Is  the  popular  notion  regarding  the  relation  between  ability  in 
childhood  and  success  in  adult  life?  2.  Have  you  heard  of  persons  who 
were  dunces  in  childhood  and  geniuses  in  maturity  ?  What  is  your  opinion  ? 
3.  What  is  the  average  college  student's  belief  concerning  the  relation  be- 
tween college  grades  and  life's  success  ?  4.  Plan  a  study  that  would  really 
give  a  scientific  answer  to  such  questions.  5.  What  parts  of  the  problem 
have  been  fairly  answered?  6.  What  parts  are  most  difficult?  Why? 
7.  Do  the  same  qualities  that  insure  success  in  school  studies  insure  suc- 
cess in  life? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Book,  The  Intelligence  of  High  School  Seniors y  chaps.  IV,  V,  VI. 

2.  Foster,  Should  Students  Study?,  chaps.  IV,  V,  VI. 

3.  Hollingworth,  Vocational  Psychology.     Entire  book. 

4.  Terman,  The  Intelligence  of  School  Children.     See  Index. 

5.  Roberts,  Studies  in  Intelligence  Ratings  and  Scholarship  Records  at  the 

University  of  Washington.     Entire  monograph. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

Importance  of  Vocational  Guidance. — The  vocational  guid- 
ance and  education  of  youth  forms  one  of  the  most  important 
phases  of  the  education  of  to-day.  This  Is  true,  first,  because 
the  entire  life  career  of  most  boys  and  girls  depends  upon  the 
efficiency  of  this  aspect  of  their  education;  and,  second,  be- 
cause the  welfare  of  society  to  such  a  large  extent  depends 
upon  it.  No  other  part  of  education  is  so  full  of  interest  to 
the  youths  themselves  as  that  which  bears  upon  their  life- 
work.  Also,  no  other  part  of  the  education  of  youth  has  as 
much  interest  and  concern  for  society.  If  the  schools  con- 
vince the  pupils  that  the  school  activities  will  contribute  to 
increased  vocational  efficiency,  the  pupils  are  at  once  inter- 
ested. Likewise,  If  parents  and  patrons  are  convinced  that 
the  schools  really  develop  vocationally  efficient  men  and 
women,  they  are  ready  to  support  the  school  generally.  On 
the  contrary,  disbelief  in  the  effectiveness  of  schools  in  pro- 
ducing vocational  expertness  causes  parsimony  in  supporting 
the  schools.  There  is  great  importance  of  educational  wis- 
dom in  (a)  convincing  the  public  that  youth  is  the  time  for 
vocational  guidance,  and  (b)  in  demonstrating  that  educa- 
tional experts  can  diagnose  pupils  accurately  and  guide  them 
wisely  in  vocational  selection  and  training. 

Meaning  of  Vocational  Education. — Vocational  education  is 
to  be  interpreted  broadly  in  this  discussion.  It  is  not  to  be 
limited  to  mean  manual-arts  work,  looking  toward  gaining  a 
livelihood.  It  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the  trades  or  crafts. 
In  fact,  the  meaning  is  altogether  too  narrow  if  it  is  limited 
to  the  material  means  of  gaining  a  livelihood.  Living  is  far 
broader  than  the  securing  of  food,  shelter,  and  raiment.  Liv- 
ing includes  spiritual  attitudes  and  aspirations,  as  well  as 

411 


412         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

satisfaction  of  bodily  needs.  Living  includes  intellectual, 
aesthetic,  and  moral  exercise  and  enjoyment  as  well.  Com- 
plete living  involves  concern  for  and  satisfaction  in  promoting 
the  welfare  of  others  as  well  as  of  self.  It  includes  not  only 
self  and  even  one's  own  immediate  family,  but  one's  com- 
munity, one's  state,  one's  nation — humanity. 

A  real  vocation  comprises  all  of  one's  life-work,  which 
enables  him  to  realize  all  of  these  complex  results.  Therefore 
in  considering  vocational  education  we  must  give  considera- 
tion not  only  to  the  means  of  physical  livelihood,  not  only 
the  means  of  earning  enough  to  maintain  a  family  and  a  re- 
spectable place  in  a  community,  but  we  should  be  equally 
concerned  with  an  education  which  will  enable  the  individual 
to  realize  the  larger  possibilities  of  life  as  well.  This  is  too 
often  lost  sight  of.  Short-sighted  reformers  are  too  much 
concerned  over  a  kind  of  narrow  trade- training  and  skill,  and 
too  little  with  developing  broad-minded  men  as  well  as  work- 
ers. 'There  is  to-day  more  danger  of  spiritual  starvation  than 
of  bodily  starvation.  The  bread-line  is  not  the  great  menace 
to-day.  The  menace  is  the  unhumanitarian  attitude  of  those 
who  have  developed  skill  and  shrewdness  and  who  are  depriv- 
ing others  of  their  rights  to  reasonable  human  happiness. 
The  great  concern  of  labor  to-day  is  not  trade  education 
(training),  but  to  stimulate  the  workers  to  take  an  interest  in 
the  great  world  problems.  It  is  gratifying  to  note,  too,  that 
the  ranks  of  labor  are  making  tremendous  strides  in  this  direc- 
tion. They  are  becoming  so  wide  awake  on  great  questions 
of  human  rights  and  justice  that  the  soulless  "interests"  are 
becoming  tremendously  alarmed.  This  very  attitude  must 
be  stimulated  to  the  utmost  through  the  right  kind  of  voca- 
tional education. 

It  is  just  as  important  to  provide  vocational  education  for 
the  children  of  the  well-to-do  and  even  the  wealthy  as  for  the 
poor.  In  many  ways  it  is  more  necessary  to  do  so,  for  the 
poor  will  naturally  from  necessity  be  stimulated  to  select  a 
life  occupation.  The  rich,  not  being  under  the  economic 
necessity  of  working  for  a  livelihood,  do  not  centre  upon  any- 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  413 

thing  to  develop  permanent  interests.  The  workers,  in  at- 
taining mastery  of  an  occupation  and  in  following  that  occu- 
pation as  a  means  of  livelihood,  develop  a  view-point  of  labor 
and  its  purposes  that  tend  to  make  them  humanitarian  and 
sympathetic.  The  one  not  compelled  to  learn  a  vocation  or 
to  ply  it  as  a  means  of  livelihood  becomes  contracted  in  vision, 
unsympathetic,  and  lacking  in  humanitarianism.  Conse- 
quently vocational  education  and  training  is  necessary  for  all. 
All  need  to  be  taught  the  means  of  livelihood  and  also  to  per- 
form honest  work  and  render  service,  whether  under  the 
necessity  of  doing  so  or  not. 

Much  interest  has  been  developed  in  the  last  few  years  in 
the  question  of  intelligent  vocational  guidance  of  young  peo- 
ple. When  industrial  life  was  relatively  simple  and  limited 
to  a  narrow  range  of  occupations,  the  boy  naturally  either  fol- 
lowed the  vocation  of  his  father  or  drifted  by  chance  to  some 
other  life-work.  Most  of  the  skill  required  in  a  given  occupa- 
tion was  secured  at  home  by  participation  or  through  the 
apprenticeships.  Girls  received  all  their  training  in  the  home, 
because  the  home  was  their  future  destiny.  As  the  industries 
have  multiplied  and  become  specialized  to  a  very  high  degree, 
the  selection  of  a  career  has  become  a  matter  of  great  impor- 
tance. 

Formerly  it  was  believed  that  a  general  education  was 
wholly  adequate  to  enable  each  one  to  select  wisely  and  to 
gain  equipment  for  his  life-work.  Now,  as  the  training  for 
many  occupations  is  so  specialized  and  so  extended,  it  be- 
comes highly  important  that  the  individual  select  the  right 
occupation  and  make  no  unwise  detours  in  acquiring  the  pre- 
liminary training  and  an  opportunity  to  enter  the  chosen 
career. 

In  recognition  of  these  conditions  much  time  and  thought 
have  been  expended  upon  developing  vocational  guidance 
bureaus,  training  vocational  guidance  experts,  and  in  estab- 
lishing vocational  guidance  departments  in  connection  with 
school  systems.  The  success  of  the  effort  depends  in  the 
main  upon  four  factors :  {a)  the  successful  survey  and  exhibition 


414         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   TEACHERS 

of  the  various  fields  of  human  endeavor,  (b)  a  discovery  of  the 
quaHties  necessary  for  success  in  the  various  occupations,  (c) 
a  diagnosis  of  each  individual's  aptitude,  and  (d)  the  provi- 
sion of  opportunities  to  enter  upon  the  career  for  which  one 
is  fitted. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  be  a  syllabus  on  the 
technic  and  details  of  vocational  guidance  and  training.  It 
is  rather  to  attempt  to  present  a  point  of  view  and  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  meaning  of  a  vocation  and  its  relation  to  the 
period  of  youth.  Undoubtedly  the  largest  factor  in  voca- 
tional guidance  is  the  arousal  of  a  genuine  ambition  to  suc- 
ceed and  to  make  the  most  of  oneself,  and  the  desire  to  ren- 
der service  to  society.  Therefore,  the  problem  is  a  psycho- 
logical one — a  problem  of  knowing  how  to  stimulate  and 
guide  instinctive  ambitions  at  their  periods  of  nascency.  The 
furnishing  with  technical  equipment  is  a  relatively  easy  one 
compared  with  this. 

Psychology  in  Vocational  Guidance. — While  recognizing 
that  much  has  already  been  accomplished  by  psychological 
methods  in  vocational  guidance,  a  word  of  caution  must  be 
given.  Because  of  the  great  value  of  the  intelligence  and 
trade  tests  given  in  the  army,  the  wildest  assumptions  are 
being  made  by  quacks  and  charlatans  for  commercial  pur- 
poses. There  is  now  almost  as  much  of  a  belief  that  there  is 
some  wizardry  in  psychology  as  there  was  in  astrology  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  To  many  of  the  multitude  psychology  means 
some  uncanny  clairvoyance  or  hypnotism.  Quacks  make  use 
of  this  credulity  and  are  reaping  great  harvests  of  lucre 
thereby.  Self-styled  "psychologists"  are  giving  lectures  to 
large  groups  of  business  men  on  the  "psychology  of  success," 
the  "psychology  of  efficiency,"  etc.  "How  to  Read  People 
on  Sight,  to  Impress  Them,  Convince,  Persuade,  and  Under- 
stand Them"  is  the  title  of  a  series  of  lectures  said  to  have 
been  given  to  as  high  as  3,000  persons  in  one  city,  and  similar 
numbers  in  other  places.  The  audience  were  taught  "How 
to  know,  at  a  glance,  the  amount  of  any  individual's  capacity 
— the  ideal  head  for  success  to-day."     "Leanings  and  long- 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  415 

ings  which  we  imagine  we  conceal  from  the  world  are  printed 
in  the  shapes  of  the  eyes,  mouth,  nose,  jaw,  and  forehead." 
"How  to  discover  what  has  been  holding  you  back."  Then 
there  are  "memory  experts,"  "will-trainers,"  etc.,  galore. 
The  following  is  an  illustration  of  the  type: 

SALESLADIES,  ATTENTION!  The  shortest  distance  between 
two  given  points  is  a  straight  line.  Don't  guess  at  your  customer.  It 
is  not  profitable,  practical,  nor  necessary.  You  can  learn  how  to 
read  people  at  a  glance.  Ten  evening  lessons  will  make  you  a  suc- 
cessful character  analyst.  Increase  your  income.  Come  in  and  get 
the  names  of  my  successful  students.  They  will  be  glad  to  tell  you 
what  the  course  has  done  for  them.  New  class  begins  November  ist. 
Office  open  every  evening  this  week,  7 130  to  9  P.  m.  Visitors  welcome. 
,  expert  character  analyst. 

Manifestly  all  such  assumptions  are  pure  "bunk."  The 
belief  in  such  wizardry,  however,  is  a  very  natural  aftermath 
of  the  war  emotionalism.  Everybody  was  in  a  high  tension 
emotionally,  and  then  important  results  had  actually  been 
achieved  by  scientific  psychologists  in  sorting  men  into  groups 
for  occupational  placement.  Because  of  that  remarkable  suc- 
cess quacks  and  charlatans  have  seized  the  psychological  mo- 
ment to  exploit  their  nefarious  art.  At  no  other  time  in  a 
century  has  it  been  so  easy  to  peddle  psychological  bunk  as 
at  the  present. 

Those  who  had  most  to  do  with  the  development  of  intelli- 
gence testing  in  the  army  and  its  application  to  vocational 
placement  are  the  most  modest  in  their  claims  regarding  its 
values.  However,  a  real  beginning  has  been  made  and  the 
opportunity  must  not  be  lost  to  develop  further  a  real  science 
of  human  analysis. 

Analysis  of  Individuals. — ^AU  possible  available  means  and 
methods  of  studying  the  qualities  of  individuals  should  be  em- 
ployed. If  it  were  possible  to  know  accurately  all  the  powers 
and  characteristics  of  an  individual  and  also  the  qualities  nec- 
essary for  success  in  any  particular  occupation,  then  it  would 
be  a  relatively  easy  matter  to  establish  vocational  guidance 
on  a  scientific  basis.     There  are  many  claims  and  assumptions 


4i6         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

made  by  quacks  and  pseudoscientists.  But  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  day  is  far  distant  when  anything  approaching 
complete  scientific  accuracy  has  been  reached. 

Intelligence  and  Vocational  Intentions. — Several  studies 
have  been  made  to  discover  the  relation  between  intelligence 
of  high-school  pupils  and  the  vocations  which  they  aimed  to 
follow.  Book  found  in  his  Indiana  study  that  the  high-school 
seniors  who  had  made  vocational  choices  were  slightly  higher 
in  intelligence  than  those  who  had  not  made  such  selections. 
The  difference,  however,  was  not  great.  He  found  that  the 
boys  selecting  various  occupations  ranked  in  intelligence  as 
follows,  starting  with  the  highest:  scientist,  minister,  journal- 
ist, lawyer,  engineer,  teacher,  business  man,  physician,  farmer, 
mechanic,  stenographer.  A  similar  study  of  high-school  girls 
showed  the  following  order:  journalism,  law,  social  service, 
medicine,  teaching,  entertaining,  home-making,  clerical  work, 
music  and  art,  nursing. 

Studies  made  at  the  University  of  Washington  on  students 
who  are  actually  in  training  for  their  vocations  indicated  that 
engineering  students  scored  slightly  higher  than  the  all-uni- 
versity medians.  Those  preparing  for  teaching  also  scored 
higher  than  the  all-university  medians.  Engineering  students 
led  all  other  occupational  groups.  The  army  studies  showed 
that  the  professional  classes  scored  much  higher  than  those  in 
clerical,  mechanical,  and  day-laboring  classes. 

Intelligence  of  Seniors  and  Parents'  Occupation. — Book  and 
others  have  studied  the  relation  between  the  intelligence  of 
pupils  and  the  occupations  of  parents.  He  found  the  follow- 
ing order  of  intelligence  scores  from  the  different  classes  of 
parents'  occupations:  professional  workers,  clerical  workers, 
skilled  artisans,  salesmen  and  clerks,  business  executives,  day- 
laborers,  farmers.  This  needs  to  be  studied  much  more  ex- 
haustively, especially  from  the  economic  point  of  view.  It 
should  also  be  studied  through  several  generations  to  see  what 
types  of  occupation  seem  to  produce  the  highest  types  of  in- 
telligence. 

Thus  far  only  a  few  tests  have  been  devised  which  really 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  417 

determine  exactly  fitness  for  a  particular  pursuit.  Perhaps 
only  three  tests  have  any  great  degree  of  reliability,  viz.,  tests 
for  musical  talent,  ability  to  become  an  aviator,  and  ability 
in  typewriting  and  stenography. 

Seashore  Tests  in  Music. — Seashore,  who  has  spent  most 
of  his  professional  life  in  the  study  of  sound,  has  devised  a 
set  of  tests  of  musical  ability  that  are  doubtless  very  reliable. 
By  use  of  specially  prepared  phonograph  records  it  is  possible 
to  test  certain  basic  factors  in  musical  ability.  His  tests  are 
divided  into  two  series,  the  first  series  including  tests  for  {a) 
the  sense  of  pitch,  {h)  the  sense  of  intensity,  (c)  the  sense  of 
consonance,  {d)  musical  memory.  A  more  refined  series  in- 
cludes tests  for  the  measurement  of  (a)  timed  action,  (h) 
rhythmic  action,  {c)  motility,  {d)  singing  in  pitch.  {The  Psy- 
chology of  Musical  Talent,  1919,  par.  VIIL) 

The  tests  have  been  standardized  and  are  very  easy  to  give. 
The  sounds  necessary  for  study  are  all  recorded  on  grapho- 
phone  records  prepared  by  the  Columbia  Graphophone  Com- 
pany. Seashore  has  prepared  manuals  of  instruction  so  that 
any  one  can  readily  give  and  score  the  tests,  even  though  un- 
musical himself.  "The  measures  are  so  adjusted  as  to  be 
easy  enough  in  parts  for  the  poorest  listener,  and  difficult 
enough  in  parts  for  the  best  listener."  {Manual  of  Instruc- 
tions and  Interpretations  for  Measures  of  Musical  Talent,  p.  4.) 

In  the  first  test  the  listeners  hear  two  tones  differing  in 
pitch.  They  are  to  judge  whether  the  second  is  higher  or 
lower  than  the  first.  Ten  trials  are  usually  given.  Suitable 
blanks  are  furnished  so  that  pupils  can  easily  record  their 
judgments.  In  the  second,  sense  of  intensity,  the  listeners 
hear  two  tones  which  differ  in  loudness  or  strength.  They 
are  to  judge  and  record  whether  the  second  is  weaker  or 
stronger  than  the  first.  In  judging  sense  of  time  three  clicks 
are  sounded,  marking  off  two  intervals  of  time.  The  listeners 
are  to  judge  and  record  whether  the  interval  between  the 
second  and  third  clicks  is  longer  or  shorter  than  the  interval 
between  the  first  and  second.  In  testing  the  sense  of  conso- 
nance the  following  instructions  are  given: 


41 8    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

To  the  listener:  You  will  hear  two  combinations  of  two  tones  each; 
one  combination  is  better  or  worse  than  the  other  in  consonance  (har- 
mony) .  A  good  combination  is  one  in  which  the  two  tones  are  smooth 
and  blend,  tending  to  fuse  together  into  one.  A  bad  combination  is 
just  the  opposite.  If  the  second  combination  is  better,  record  B;  if 
worse,  W.  This  calls  for  judgment  on  blending,  smoothness,  and 
fusion,  apart  from  the  feelings  of  like  or  dislike,  and  apart  from  theory 
or  feeling  of  musical  value.  Blending,  smoothness,  and  fusion  should 
be  explained  fully,  and  may  be  illustrated  on  the  piano  before  the  pre- 
liminary practice.     {Op.  cit.,  p.  15.) 

Tonal  memory  is  tested  in  the  following  manner: 

To  the  listener:  In  each  trial  you  will  hear  a  series  of  tones  played 
twice.  In  the  second  playing  one  note  is  changed.  You  are  to  record 
by  number  which  one  was  changed.  In  listening  count  mentally;  for 
example,  i,  2,  in  the  first  playing,  and  then  likewise  in  the  second 
playing,  so  that  you  may  identify  the  one  that  was  changed  without 
error.  There  should  be  preliminary  drill  for  each  span  of  the  five 
degrees  of  difficulty,  with  emphasis  on  the  silent  counting.  (Seashore, 
Mamml  of  Instructions  and  Interpretations  for  Measures  of  Musical 
Talent,  pp.  14,  15.) 

As  illustrations  of  individual  surveys  of  musical  talent,  two 
individual  record  charts  are  reproduced  from  Seashore's  The 
Psychology  of  Musical  Talent,  pp.  19,  21. 


Theodora, — Theodora  has  a  decidedly  musical  mind.  In  the  three 
basic  capacities  for  musical  hearing — the  sense  of  pitch,  the  sense  of 
intensity,  and  the  sense  of  time — she  is  superior  and  well  balanced. 
Her  sense  of  consonance  is  of  a  high  order.  Her  acuity  of  hearing  is 
only  average,  but  this  condition  is  not  of  the  type  which  will  affect 
music  seriously  in  view  of  her  superior  sense  of  intensity.  Her  imagery 
is  all  of  the  moderate  type.  Her  auditory  imagery  can  be  developed 
as  an  excellent  support  to  her  superior  sensory  powers,  and  the  motor 
and  visual  imagery  are  prominent  enough  for  an  emotional  back- 
ground in  music.  Her  lowest  record  is  on  motility,  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  fact  that  she  has  a  deliberate  type  of  mind  and  is  steady 
in  her  movements.  Her  physique  is  average,  as  indicated  by  her 
grip  and  ergogram.  Her  precision  of  movement  and  her  simple  re- 
sponse to  a  simple  signal  are  slightly  above  average;  while  her  simple 
response  to  a  complex  signal  is  decidedly  better.     Her  capacity  for 


VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  419 

serial  association  of  sound  and  action  is  good;  whereas  her  association 
for  visual  impressions  and  action  is  barely  above  average.  Her  timed 
action  and  her  rhythmic  action  are  both  good.  Her  general  motor 
reliability  is  superior.  She  sings  in  key  with  remarkable  ability  and 
reproduces  the  interval  with  superior  precision,  although  her  voice 
control  is  only  moderately  good  for  nuances  of  pitch.  She  has  a  good 
voice  register  and  an  excellent  voice  quality.  Her  tonal  memory  is 
decidedly  superior.  She  gives  superior  promise  for  speed  and  reliabil- 
ity in  the  acquisition  of  skill  in  music.  Her  associations  are  highly 
versatile  and  remarkably  well  balanced,  but  not  peculiarly  musical. 
Her  mental  age  is  fully  two  years  in  advance  of  the  normal.  Emotion- 
ally she  is  cool  and  undemonstrative,  but  capable  of  deep  feeling  for 
music. 

Generalizing  from  the  above,  we  observe  that  Theodora  has  a  rare 
balance  of  high  sensory  capacities  for  music,  that  she  is  of  the  strongly 
intellectual  rather  than  of  the  motor  type  of  mind,  and  that,  there- 
fore, she  is  not  so  skilful  in  performance  as  she  is  in  hearing,  apprecia- 
tion, and  intellectual  control.  Her  motor  responses  are  of  the  slow, 
deliberate,  and  reliable  type. 

Theodora  belongs  to  a  decidedly  musical  family  and  is  given  excel- 
lent musical  advantages.  On  account  of  her  remarkable  versatility  in 
other  respects,  she  approaches  music,  like  other  interests,  in  a  matter- 
of-fact  attitude. 

Rosahelle. — Rosabelle  is  not  of  the  musical  type  of  mind.  She  has 
an  average  sense  of  pitch  and  an  inferior  sense  of  intensity,  but  a 
rather  good  sense  of  time.  She  possesses  but  a  slight  sense  of  conso- 
nance. Her  acuity  of  hearing  is  below  the  average.  She  has  but  lit- 
tle auditory  imagery,  but  her  motor  imagery  is  pronounced  and  her 
visual  imagery  average.  She  has  good  general  motility.  Her  phy- 
sique is  slightly  above  average.  In  precise  movements  and  in  simple 
reaction  she  is  above  average,  but  her  complex  reaction  is  superior. 
Her  auditory  serial  action  is  below  average,  while  her  visual  serial 
action  is  very  good.  She  is  decidedly  inferior  in  timed  action  and 
poor  in  rhythmic  action.  In  general  motor  reliability  she  is  superior. 
Her  capacity  for  striking  the  pitch  of  a  note  is  inferior,  although  she 
sings  the  common  intervals  with  a  moderate  accuracy  and  her  voice 
control  of  pitch  is  fair.  She  has  a  fair  register  of  voice,  but  the  quality 
is  inferior.  Her  memory  for  tones  is  not  quite  up  to  the  average. 
Although  she  has  very  good  capacity  for  visual-motor  learning,  her 
auditory-motor  learning  curve  is  below  average.  Her  musical  associa- 
tions are  superficial,  although  she  has  a  fertile  mind  and  her  mental 
age  is  above  normal.  Although  otherwise  quite  emotional,  she  is 
but  slightly  moved  by  music. 

Summarizing  the  characterization,  we  find  that  Rosabelle  is  of  the 


Sense  of  Pitch 

Sense  of  Intensity 

Sense  of  Time 

Sense  of  Consonance 

Acuity  of  Hearing 

Auditory  Imagery 

Motor  Imagery 

Visual  Imagery ' 

Motility 

Grip 

Ergogram 

Precision  of  Movement 

Simple  Reaction 

Complex  Reaction 

Auditory  Serial  Action , 

Visual  Serial  Action 

Timed  Action 

Rhythmic  Action 

Motor  Reliability 

Singing  Key 

Singing  Interval 

Voice  Control 

Register  of  Voice 

*  Quality  of  Voice 

Tonal  Memory 

Visual  Motor  Learning 

Auditory  Motor  Learning 

*  Musical  Association 

Intelligence  Quotient 

*  Emotional  Reaction  to  Music 

TALENT  CHART  OF  THEODORA 
(  ^20 )  *  Estimates. 


Sense  of  Pitch 

Sense  of  Intensity 

Sense  of  Time 

Sense  of  Consonance 

Acuity  of  Hearing 

Auditory  Imagery 

Motor  Imagery 

Visual  Imagery 

Motility 

Grip 

Ergogram 

Precision  of  Movement 

Simple  Reaction 

Complex  Reaction 

Auditory  Serial  Action 

Visual  Serial  Action 

Timed  Action 

Rhythmic  Action 

Motor  Reliability 

Singing  Key 

Singing  Interval 

Voice  Control 

Register  of  Voice 

*  Quality  of  Voice 

Tonal  Memory 

Visual  Motor  Learning 

Auditory  Motor  Learning 

*  Musical  Association 

Intelligence  Quotient 

Emotional  Reaction  to  Music 

TALENT  CHART  OF  ROSABELLE 
*  Estimates. 


(421) 


42  2    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

intellectual-motor  type,  normally  emotional.  She  is  but  slightly  eax- 
minded  and  does  not  live  in  a  tonal  world  or  respond  effectively  to 
musical  sounds  and  associations. 

Rosabelle  takes  a  superficial  interest  in  music  and  associates  with 
musical  children,  but  her  musical  reactions  are  scarcely  emotional  or 
artistic* 

Tests  for  Stenographic  Ability. — Various  tests  have  been 
devised  to  diagnose  ability  in  stenography  and  typewriting. 
A  considerable  degree  of  correlation  has  been  found  between 
ability  to  spell  and  success  in  stenography  and  typing.  The 
one  who  cannot  spell  cannot  satisfy  employers,  and  conse- 
quently one's  rating  in  a  standardized  spelling  scale  is  quite 
indicative  of  success  in  typing  from  dictation  or  from  steno- 
graphic notes.  Ability  in  spelling  would  affect  both  accu- 
racy and  speed  in  the  work. 

Lough  found  that  a  substitution  test,  in  which  certain  char- 
acters had  to  be  replaced  by  certain  others,  according  to  a 
certain  key,  was  a  good  index  of  typewriting  ability.  (See 
Hollingworth,   Vocational  Psychology,  p.  112.) 

Some  regard  the  Trabue  completion  tests  as  having  special 
significance  in  relation  to  diagnosing  transcription  ability. 
For  example,  there  Is  a  similarity  between  making  out  one's 
notes  in  which  some  words  are  illegible  and  supplying  missing 

words   In    a    mutilated   sentence   Hke   ''The Is   shining 

and  we  may on  our  picnic."  (See  Link,  Employ- 
ment Psychology,  p.  92.)  For  diagnosing  speed  and  accuracy, 
undoubtedly  some  form  of  reaction  tests,  both  simple  and 
complex,  would  be  very  Important.  After  the  processes  have 
become  somewhat  mechanized,  the  work  is  largely  that  of 
reacting  In  a  given  way  to  a  given  stimulus. 

Tests  for  Ability  in  Telegraphy. — Thurstone  found  that: 
"The  general  Intelligence  tests  are  not  as  valuable  for  diagnos- 
ing ability  to  learn  telegraphy  as  for  measuring  general  In- 
telligence. Ability  In  telegraphy  Is  probably  a  special  abili- 
ty." ("Mental  Tests  for  Prospective  Telegraphers,"  Jour,  of 
App.  Psych.,  3:  11Q-117,  June,  1919.) 

*  Seashore,  The  Psychology  of  Musical  Talent,  pp.  18-21. 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  423 

Proctor  says:  "Minute  charting  of  abilities  by  means  of 
psychological  and  trade  tests  is  not  practicable  at  the  present 
time  for  the  public  school  counsellor."  {Psychological  Tests 
and  Guidance  of  High  School  Pupils,  p.  49.)  In  the  National 
Business  Ability  Tests  an  attempt  is  made  to  discover  apti- 
tudes by  exercises  that  are  as  nearly  like  the  types  of  business 
experience  as  possible,  that  is,  by  an  exercise  in  spelling,  copy- 
ing, following  directions,  arithmetic,  etc.  (Cody,  Commercial 
Tests  and  How  to   Use  Them,  191 9.) 

Relation  between  School  Grades  and  Vocational  Success. 
— A  general  consideration  of  the  correlation  between  school 
grades  and  success  in  life  careers  was  given  in  the  chapter  on 
"Prophesying  Performance."  A  recent  study  is  here  men- 
tioned. 

Kohs  made  a  study  of  Reed  College  students  "to  determine 
to  what  extent  Reed  College  could  have  predicted  the  prog- 
ress of  116  of  its  students  who  entered  the  service  of  the  army 
or  the  navy.  The  data  upon  which  such  predictions  might 
have  been  based  would  have  been,  (a)  the  quality  of  their  col- 
lege work,  and  {h)  faculty  estimates  regarding,  (i)  their  physi- 
cal qualities,  (2)  their  intelligence,  (3)  their  leadership,  (4)  their 
personal  qualities,  and  (5)  their  general  value  to  the  service." 
He  compared  the  foregoing  college  success  with  their  several 
ratings  in  the  army  on  Armistice  Day. 

On  the  basis  of  the  foregoing  comparisons,  he  concluded 
that 

(i)  School  marks  are  rather  inefficient  instruments  for  determining 
whether  a  student  will  make  good  progress  in  the  army. 

(2)  Human  judges,  with  all  their  frailties,  are,  on  the  whole,  more 
efficient  prognosticators  of  progress  than  the  school  marks  which  stu- 
dents obtain. 

(3)  Of  all  the  criteria  for  prophesying  success,  the  safest  are,  first, 
judges'  estimates  of  value  to  the  service,  and,  second,  judges'  estimates 
of  intelligence.  (Kohs  and  Irle,  ''Prophesying  Army  Promotion," 
Jour,  of  App.  Psych.,  4:  73-87,  March,  1920.) 

In  the  search  for  artificial  standardized  tests  have  we  not 
somewhat  overlooked  the  significance  of  the  regular  school 


424         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

curriculum  and  the  records  of  grades  made  by  pupils  as  a 
means  of  determining  vocational  fitness?  It  is  true  that  the 
curriculum  has  been  and  often  still  is  unrelated  to  life,  but 
are  not  the  records  of  mastery  in  school  work  more  closely 
correlated  with  post-school  performance  than  we  have  been 
wont  to  think? 

Several  important  investigations  have  been  made  with 
rather  significant  results.  Among  them  are  those  of  Dearborn, 
Miles,  Smith,  T.  L.  Kelley,  and  Foster. 

All  of  these  studies  serve  to  show  in  a  forceful  manner  that 
the  performance  of  a  pupil  in  any  given  stage  of  school  work 
is  a  fairly  good  index  of  what  his  performance  will  be  later  on 
in  similar  activities.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but  the  studies 
by  President  Lowell  and  several  others  seem  to  show  that 
there  is  a  positive  and  rather  high  correlation  between  accom- 
plishment in  school  and  in  later  life. 

Because  of  these  positive  correlations  between  earlier  and 
later  performance,  the  very  best  vocational  test  for  any  given 
line  of  work  is  study  and  training  in  that  work.  The  degree 
of  success  attained  in  the  initial  stages  is  a  fairly  good  index 
of  later  probable  success.  Of  course  the  preliminary  test 
must  be  carried  on  for  a  sufficiently  long  period  of  time  to 
test  adequately. 

While  the  study  of  the  curriculum  in  school  is  quite  differ- 
ent in  many  respects  from  the  work  demanded  in  many  voca- 
tions, the  correlations  between  school  success  and  success  in 
later  life  seem  to  indicate  that  the  school  work  is  a  fairly  good 
vocational  test.  Of  course  it  would  be  still  better  if  it  could 
include  at  least  the  elements  of  the  fairly  well  standardized 
vocations.  Through  their  sampling  of  these  their  bent  for  a 
variety  of  work  could  be  studied  fairly  well.  Such  prevoca- 
tional  experience  would  be  far  superior  to  any  of  those  usually 
exploited  in  books  on  vocational  guidance  and  by  "character 
analysis." 

Brewer  says: 

School  examinations  may  be  much  improved,  and  may  in  time  be- 
come the  best  of  all  "psychological  tests."     If  the  psychological  inves- 


VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  425 

tigations  were  made  in  the  actual  schoolroom  in  co-operation  with  the 
teachers,  it  seems  likely  that  much  more  progress  would  be  made  than 
we  can  hope  to  make  with  researches  apart  from  the  school.  Thus  the 
psychologist  may  study  the  interests  of  pupils  as  expressed  in  their 
choices  of  studies,  games,  and  subjects  for  oral  and  written  composi- 
tion; aid  the  teacher  in  grading  for  difficulty  a  series  of  lessons  in 
arithmetic;  study  the  correlation  between  school  marks  in  English  and 
in  science;  help  the  teacher  in  planning  better  examinations  in  geog- 
raphy; plot  individual  learning  curves  for  records  in  a  series  of  exam- 
inations in  stenography.  The  co-operation  of  the  trained  psycholo- 
gist, the  vocational  counsellor,  the  teacher,  the  employment  supervisor, 
and  the  employment  manager,  may  in  time  yield  some  examina- 
tions which  wull  aid  in  the  work  of  selecting  a  vocation.  (Brewer, 
The  Vocational  Guidance  Movement,  p.  102.) 

Brewer  further  says: 

Laboratory  tests  may  for  the  present  be  abandoned,  so  far  as  voca- 
tional guidance  is  concerned,  and  actual  standardized  work  tasks  sub- 
stituted. The  records  of  the  child  in  such  tasks,  and  his  capacity  for 
improvement,  if  a  series  of  tests  can  measure  it,  may  be  taken  as  a 
basis  for  forecasting  the  probable  success.  (See  Thompson,  191 5, 
Report  of  U.  S.  Com.  of  Educ,  p.  291.) 

What  May  be  Done  in  Vocational  Guidance. — In  the  ab- 
sence of  definite  standardized  tests  which  will  indicate  un- 
equivocally the  bent  of  a  pupil's  mind,  what  can  be  done  to 
provide  vocational  guidance?  In  the  first  place,  all  teachers 
and  others  concerned  with  the  future  welfare  of  the  child 
should  be  studying  him  to  gain  even  scraps  of  information  or 
suggestions  concerning  his  interests  and  aptitudes.  This 
should  not  all  be  left  to  a  vocational  counsellor  who  is  sup- 
posed to  possess  such  wizardry  that  he  can  pass  all  the  chil- 
dren in  review  and  in  a  few  minutes  determine  what  each 
one  is  destined  to  become.  All  teachers  should  regard  it  as 
a  part  of  their  function  to  study  each  pupil  with  vocational 
ends  in  mind.  All  should  co-operate  with  parents  and  the 
vocational  counsellor  in  accumulating  and  evaluating  as  well 
as  possible  the  knowledge  that  will  be  helpful  in  the  final  de- 
termination of  a  vocational  choice. 


426    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

Other  Qualities  besides  Intellectual  Ability. — It  has  been 
assumed  apparently  by  many  writers  on  vocational  guidance 
that  the  general  intelligence  quotient  is  sufficient  to  determine 
vocational  aptitude.  This  is  very  fallacious  because  a  given 
general  intelligence  might  be  used  in  a  variety  of  directions. 
A  high  degree  of  intelligence  is  undoubtedly  necessary  for  suc- 
cess in  law  or  medicine,  but  the  same  intelligence  might  suc- 
ceed in  engineering  or  finance. 

For  example,  a  successful  stenographer  needs  good  eyesight, 
good  hearing,  quickness  of  perception,  quickness  of  muscular 
reaction,  a  good  memory,  ability  to  spell,  a  good  knowledge 
of  English;  the  broader  the  knowledge  of  literature,  history, 
geography,  science,  current  events  the  better;  should  know 
how  to  write;  should  have  mastered  the  technic  of  stenogra- 
phy, the  typewriter;  should  know  how  to  file  letters,  manipu- 
late the  mimeograph,  etc.,  etc. 

But  do  the  possession  of  all  these  abilities  and  skills  insure 
absolute  success  as  a  stenographer?  Most  stenographers  are 
in  reality  secretaries,  and  their  success  depends  upon  many 
factors.  In  addition  to  intellectual  ability  and  muscular  skill 
necessary  to  succeed,  various  other  qualities  have  equally  im- 
portant places.  Important  among  these  are  interest  in  the 
work,  state  of  health,  habitual  temper,  punctuality,  loyalty, 
neatness,  courtesy,  tact,  honesty,  integrity  of  character,  ability 
to  make  friends  and  keep  them. 

Principal  Jesse  B.  Davis,  who  has  had  such  a  rich  experi- 
ence In  counselHng  high-school  pupils,  writes  very  suggestively 
of  some  of  those  other  qualities  demanded  by  business  men. 
He  says: 


Principals  and  teachers  are  constantly  being  asked  to  answer  letters 
of  inquiry  and  to  fill  out  blank  forms  regarding  the  qualifications  of 
some  graduate  or  former  pupil  who  has  used  their  names  for  references 
in  applying  for  some  position  of  trust  or  responsibility.  Among  the 
questions  asked  are  the  following: 

Has  your  acquaintance  with  the  applicant  been  sufficiently  intimate 
for  you  personally  to  judge  his  character  and  habits? 

To  the  best  of  your  knowledge  does  the  applicant  use,  or  has  he 


VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  427 

ever  in  previous  years  used,  intoxicating  drinks,  tobacco,  morphine,  or 
opium  ? 

Does  he  use  vulgar  or  profane  language  ? 

Is  he  industrious,  careful,  thorough,  honest,  truthful,  trustworthy? 

Have  you  ever  heard  that  the  applicant  was  suspected  of  intem- 
perance, gambling,  speculating,  extravagance,  dishonorable  conduct? 

Do  you  consider  the  applicant  a  safe  and  proper  person  to  be  guar- 
anteed by  this  company,  and  one  whom  you  would  yourself  trust  ?  * 

The  character  of  these  questions  indicates  the  fact  that  employers 
and  bonding  companies  are  vitally  concerned  with  the  moral  qualities 
of  applicants.  I  have  often  been  called  upon  to  find  a  young  man  for 
a  certain  position.  When  I  asked  the  employer  whether  he  wished 
the  applicant  to  know  certain  things,  he  invariably  replied:  ''We  will 
teach  him  the  things  we  wish  him  to  know.  What  I  want  you  to  do 
is  to  help  me  find  the  right  kind  of  a  fellow."  Further  evidence  of  the 
demand  of  industry  and  commerce  for  moral  qualities  is  found  in  the 
following  questions  taken  from  application  blanks: 

Are  your  habits  sober  and  temperate  ?  Have  they  always  been  so  ? 
Do  you  use  liquor  or  narcotics  of  any  kind  ?     If  so,  what  ? 

Do  you  use  tobacco?  smoke  cigarettes? 

Have  you  ever  played  cards  for  money  or  engaged  in  any  other 
form  of  gambling? 

Have  you  ever  "played  the  races"  or  speculated,  and  do  you  now 
occasionally  speculate  ? 

Have  you  any  tastes  or  habits  which  are  extravagant  in  proportion 
to  your  means? 

Have  you  ever  been  convicted  of  any  crime  or  misdemeanor  or 
arrested  on  any  charge? 

These  application  blanks  would  show  from  their  content  that  the 
employer  is  far  more  concerned  with  the  character  of  the  applicant 
than  with  his  record  of  scholarship.  It  suggests  that  we  ask  ourselves 
the  question:  "With  which  are  we  more  concerned?"  (Davis,  Jesse 
B.,  Vocational  and  Moral  Guidance,  pp.  15,  16.) 

Davis  comments  further: 

To  be  a  leader  in  one's  vocation  a  man  must  be  socially  efficient. 
In  this  age  of  co-operation,  of  combination,  and  of  systematic  organi- 
zation, practically  every  occupation  among  men  has  its  association  for 
the  purpose  of  promoting  the  vocational  interests  of  its  members. 
These  societies  need  the  direction  of  wise  and  competent  leaders.  The 
management  of  great  business  enterprises,  too,  is  demanding  a  large 
number  of  men  who  are  not  only  skilled  and  well  informed  regarding 

*  The  Personal  Record  Press  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  has  prepared  a 
splendid  chart  of  these  questions  and  others  for  the  use  of  schools,  etc. 


428         EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

the  business,  but  also  able  to  handle  men.     In  fact,  wherever  we  look 
in  our  present  complex  life  we  see  the  need  of  ef!icient  leaders. 

The  public  schools  have  neglected  the  development  of  people  to 
meet  this  need.  In  time  past  every  effort  was  made  b}^  school  authori- 
ties to  suppress  the  social  instincts  of  the  pupils,  in  the  blind  beHef 
that  the  schools  existed  for  the  instruction  of  the  intellect  alone. 
(Davis,  Jesse  B.,  Vocational  and  Moral  Guidance,  p.  119.) 

In  vocational  guidance  the  big  thing  is  to  stimulate  and 
awaken  the  boy  or  girl  to  a  genuine  desire  to  be  somebody  and 
to  do  something  worth  while  in  life.  As  I  have  gone  to  many 
commencement  occasions  I  have  seen  mottoes  over  the  stage 
like  ''Rowing,  not  Drifting."  I  have  often  wondered  and 
doubted  a  good  deal  whether  the  majority  of  high-school 
graduates  were  really  rowing.  They  were  equipped  with 
much  potentially  useful  knowledge  and  skill,  but  how  much 
desire  had  they  to  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  society  ? 

It  is  important  to  ask  how  much  of  that  knowledge  and 
skill  had  been  obtained  by  their  own  initiative  and  energy, 
and  how  much  by  being  compelled  to  be  in  school  and  to  get 
set  lessons.  No  one  is  vocationally  educated  who  acquires 
his  skill  through  external  compulsion.  On  graduation  day  it 
is  more  important  to  know  how  much  zeal,  earnestness,  and 
determination  the  boy  has  than  to  know  how  much  learning 
and  skill  he  possesses.  These  latter  acquisitions  are  not  un- 
important; they  are  potentially  exceedingly  valuable,  but  the 
other  qualities  far  outweigh  them.  The  possession  of  skill 
does  not  necessarily  imply  the  self-determination  neces- 
sary for  success.  The  development  of  a  habit  of  initiative, 
thoroughgoing  honesty,  kindliness,  will  enable  one  to  over- 
come the  temporary  handicap  of  lack  of  knowledge  of  a  trade 
or  craft. 

Consequently  vocational  guidance  and  training  must  not 
overlook  the  psychological  aspect.  The  development  of  an 
attitude  toward  life,  its  problems,  rights,  and  duties  Is  more 
important  than  the  skill  or  handicraft  and  Infinitely  harder  to 
develop.  A  teacher  can  stand  over  a  boy  with  a  club  and 
make  him  acquire  proficiency  in  learning  arithmetic  or  a  craft, 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  429 

but  no  amount  of  compulsion  can  put  him  in  the  right  atti- 
tude toward  life.  The  golden  rule  is  learned  in  far  more 
subtle  ways. 

Who  Should  Give  Vocational  Counsel? — The  task  of  voca- 
tional guidance  of  youth  should  not  rest  upon  a  single  indi- 
vidual called  the  vocational  counsellor.  There  may  be  one 
director  in  a  school  system,  but  every  teacher  should  regard 
it  as  a  part  of  his  educational  problem  to  help  the  pupil  to 
find  his  niche  in  life.  The  problem  is  so  complex  and  impor- 
tant that  it  requires  the  combined  wisdom  of  all  teachers, 
friends,  and  the  pupil  himself  to  make  a  wise  choice. 

Ultimately  the  one  to  make  the  decision  is  the  individual 
himself.  No  other  person  can  make  it  wisely  for  him.  The 
pupil  should  be  assisted,  stimulated,  guided  in  every  possible 
way,  but  will  can  only  be  developed  to  the  maximum  by  per- 
sonal choice.  Even  if  some  mistakes  are  made,  the  personal 
choices  are  better  for  his  development  than  any  prescriptions 
furnished  by  outsiders,  no  matter  how  wise  they  may  be. 
Therefore,  the  most  important  function  of  vocational  guid- 
ance is  to  train  the  pupil  to  study  himself. 

One  of  the  means  of  enabling  the  pupil  to  select  wisely  is  to 
give  varied  opportunity  for  sampling  various  lines  of  activity. 
This  is  exactly  what  the  real  junior  high  school  is  intended  to 
accomplish.  Instead  of  giving  finished  skill  in  any  one  line  it 
furnishes  opportunity  for  trying  many.  In  this  way  interests 
and  aptitudes  are  discovered. 

Davis  writes: 

The  problem  of  analyzing  the  applicant  is  possibly  the  most  difficult 
part  of  vocational  counselling.  It  is  the  most  dangerous  phase  of  the 
work,  and  the  counsellor  should  enter  upon  it  with  fear  and  trembling. 
Human  judgment  is  frail,  and  experimental  psychology  has  not  yet 
been  reduced  to  an  exact  science.  There  are  many  psychological  and 
physiological  tests  that  can  be  made  to  prove  an  applicant's  unfitness 
for  certain  occupations.  Some  special  keenness  of  the  senses  may 
serve  to  indicate  fitness  for  a  specific  employment,  but  many  are  scep- 
tical regarding  the  practical  results  that  as  yet  have  been  obtained. 
The  field  of  experimentation  is  still  open  before  us,  and  in  time  the 
data  gained  may  prove  to  be  a  most  important  adjunct  to  the  equip- 
ment of  the  vocational  counsellor. 


430    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

The  advice  of  the  counsellor  should  rarely  if  ever  be  positive.  By 
this  I  mean  that  the  process  of  counselling  should  be  more  often  in  the 
negative,  eliminating  the  various  paths  or  vocations  which  are  evidently 
impossible  for  the  applicant  or  for  which  he  is  without  doubt  unfit. 
Then  by  being  carefully  guided  through  a  process  of  self-analysis,  he 
may  be  led  to  catch  a  vision  of  his  call  to  service.  The  counsellor  must 
draw  out  from  his  applicant  his  innermost  desire;  he  must  inspire  him 
with  self-confidence  and  a  lasting  determination  to  make  the  most  of 
his  opportunities.  Faith,  not  in  the  counsellor  but  in  himself,  is  the 
essential  factor.  For  this  reason  the  counsellor  must  keep  himself  in 
the  background  and  skilfully  guide  his  client  toward  the  realization 
of  his  own  vocational  aim.  (Davis,  Jesse  B.,  Vocational  and  Moral 
Guidance,  p.  142.) 


Age  of  Choosing  a  Career. — One  of  the  most  important 
educational  questions  that  could  possibly  be  considered  is 
that  concerning  the  most  advantageous  age  for  acquiring  the 
skill  and  technic  necessary  in  one's  life-work.  There  is 
great  divergence  of  opinion  among  educators  and  still  greater 
difference  of  opinion  among  nations.  European  nations  have 
all  In  practice  begun  vocational  education  at  a  very  early  age. 
This  has  been  especially  true  In  the  trades  and  crafts.  Nat- 
urally those  who  have  been  destined  to  enter  the  professions 
have  had  a  long  preliminary  training  and  have  received  their 
special  professional  training  later.  But  even  in  the  case  of 
those  who  have  gone  Into  the  professions,  the  special  training 
has  been  secured  at  an  earlier  age  In  European  countries  than 
in  the  corresponding  profession  In  this  country.  Many  of  our 
educators  and  professional  men  have  considered  that  Euro- 
pean practice  was  right  and  American  practice  was  wrong. 
Notably  ex-PresIdent  Eliot  of  Harvard  has  been  convinced 
that  our  young  men  In  America  get  Into  their  professional 
work  several  years  later  than  they  should. 

The  manufacturer  Is  very  apt  to  decide  the  matter  hastily 
and  from  the  standpoint  of  business  Interests  alone.  He 
wishes  to  employ  operators  who  know  how  to  do  certain 
mechanical  things  In  the  most  efhclent  manner.  This  Is,  of 
course,  perfectly  worthy.  However,  very  frequently  In  his 
short-sightedness  he  demands  that  the  main  effort  of  the  pub- 


VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  431 

lie  school  shall  be  directed  toward  producing  trained  and 
skilled  workmen.  He  often  decries  the  public  schools  if  pupils 
do  not  measure  up  to  this  standard.  He  fails  to  measure 
them  by  any  other  standards. 

Even  granting  that  skill  and  technic  are  desirable  posses- 
sions for  every  pupil  when  finally  launched  into  the  world  of 
competition,  when  is  the  appropriate  time  for  their  acquisi- 
tion ?  One  of  the  most  important  fruits  of  education  is  to 
teach  the  boy  to  want  to  stay  in  school  as  long  as  possible. 
Will  the  early  learning  of  a  trade  do  this  ?  Usually  one  of  the 
motives  stimulating  the  pupil  to  acquire  a  trade  is  the  desire 
to  get  into  a  gainful  occupation.  To  plunge  the  boy  or  girl 
into  gainful  occupations  too  early  is  to  limit  their  possibilities 
of  development.  Real  education  is  to  awaken  and  unfold 
latent  potentialities.  Skill  means  acquired  habits  and  fixed 
ways  of  acting  and  behaving.  Whenever  a  habit  has  been 
fully  developed  it  tends  toward  fixity  instead  of  flexibility  of 
behavior.  Real  education  should  produce  versatility  instead 
of  fixity  of  action.     Real  education  should  promote  plasticity. 

Consequently  from  a  biological  standpoint  education  should 
seek  to  give  the  individual  a  variety  of  experiences,  only  a  few 
of  which  most  necessary  to  everyday  existence  should  be 
mechanized.  How  to  walk,  how  to  use  a  knife  and  fork,  the 
forms  of  the  multiplication  table,  etc.,  should  be  thoroughly 
mechanized,  but  the  form  of  reasoning  out  a  problem  in  arith- 
metic, knowledge  of  history,  geography,  and  literature,  how 
to  deal  with  social  situations,  should  never  be  learned  in  forms 
and  formulas. 

Distinction  between  Vocational  Guidance  and  SkilL — A 
distinction  should  be  made  between  vocational  guidance  and 
the  acquisition  of  finished  vocational  skill.  As  soon  as  mas- 
tery of  any  process  is  secured,  fixedness  of  habit  is  the  result. 
Fixedness  is  the  opposite  of  education.  Plasticity  and  ability 
to  take  up  new  processes  should  be  the  end  sought  in  all  educa- 
tion. Therefore  too  early  entrance  upon  the  acquisition  of 
vocational  skill  is  contrary  to  the  idea  of  education,  i.  e.,  the 
unfoldment  of  all  the  powers  and  potentialities  of  the  individ- 


432    EVERYDAY  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS 

ual.  While  every  opportunity  possible  should  be  given  for 
coming  in  contact  with  and  sampling  a  variety  of  vocations, 
the  acquisition  of  final  skill  should  be  postponed  as  late  as 
possible.  We  should  aim  to  keep  boys  and  girls  in  school  as 
long  as  possible,  acquiring  new  ideas  and  skills,  and  postpone 
the  acquisition  of  skill  in  the  life-work  as  late  as  possible. 
This  is  really  the  underlying  principle  of  the  junior  high 
school. 

Brewer  says: 

Counsellors  are  sometimes  asked  the  question,  "At  what  age  should 
the  vocation  be  chosen?"  by  anxious  parents  or  ''practical"  friends 
of  the  child.  It  is  impossible  to  answer;  generalization  here  is  quite 
gratuitous.  Yet  the  dangers  connected  with  too  early  or  too  late 
choices  are  serious. 

The  enrichment  of  the  school  programme  will  undoubtedly  furnish 
an  educational  guidance  which  will  disclose  aims  and  abilities  much 
sooner  than  would  the  narrow  programme.  Yet  the  child  has  only  a 
child's  experiences,  and  there  are  certain  occupations  whose  require- 
ments and  opportunities  can  hardly  be  appreciated  by  a  person  under 
twenty-one;  for  example,  those  of  the  lawyer,  the  statesman,  the  social 
worker,  the  college  teacher. 

The  problem  can  be  solved  only  by  opening  wide  the  opportunity 
for  education  and  range  of  choice:  by  increasing  the  vocational  infancy 
of  all  those  young  persons  who  are  likely  to  profit  by  the  delay  of 
choice.  The  test  to  be  applied  should  be  progress  in  profitable  lines 
of  applied  study.  The  prevocational  age  for  certain  occupations  may 
be  extended  into  the  twenties.  Note  that  the  prevocational  idea  in- 
volves work.  There  is  only  gain  to  the  individual  and  to  society  from 
profitable,  supervised  work,  if  such  work  is  educational  in  its  func- 
tioning and  effect.  Thus,  the  future  statesman  may  run  errands,  the 
lawyer  wire  a  house,  the  preacher  lay  a  cement  sidewalk,  and  the 
college  president  work  as  clerk  in  a  store,  all  with  educational  profit  to 
the  individual  and  to  society.  (Brewer,  The  Vocational-Guidance 
Movement,  pp.  125-126.) 

Opportunities  for  Rechoice. — The  choice  of  a  vocation  by  the  pupil 
should  follow  some  study  of  the  world's  work  and  some  attempt  on 
his  part  to  ascertain  his  own  aptitudes.  He  should  make  such  a  choice 
early  enough  to  enable  him  to  make  some  preparation  for  that  voca- 
tion before  leaving  school.  One  of  the  main  advantages  of  an  early 
choice  is  that  it  gives  definite  purpose  to  much  school  work  and  gives 
the  pupil  vital  interests  around  which  he  will  organize  many  ideals 
which  otherwise  would  make  but  passing  impressions  upon  him. 


VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  433 

It  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  these  early  choices  should  be 
regarded  by  both  pupil  and  school  as  provisional.  There  should  be 
every  encouragement  for  the  pupil  to  revise  his  choice  whenever  in- 
creased insight  into  either  the  world's  work  or  his  own  aptitudes  or  a 
new  conception  of  service  to  be  rendered  indicates  that  some  other 
vocation  would  be  preferable.  For  this  reason,  among  others,  curricu- 
lums  should  be  so  organized  as  to  permit  change  from  one  to  another 
with  the  minimum  of  loss,  and  all  curriculums  should  be  conducted  in 
the  same  high  school,  so  that  pupils  may  be  encouraged  and  not  hin- 
dered in  making  desirable  readjustments.  {Vocational  Guidance  in 
Secondary  Education,  U.  S.  Bu.  of  Educ.  Bulletin,  1918,  No.  19. 
"Guidance  in  Choice  and  Rechoice  of  a  Vocation,"  p.  20.) 

"Do  early  choices  persist?"  Peixotto  (p.  82)  thinks  that 
vocational  clews  of  a  reliable  sort  begin  to  manifest  themselves 
between  the  ages  of  11  and  14  years.  Thorndike  has  com- 
puted for  100  individuals  the  resemblance  between  relative 
interests  and  relative  capacities  as  0.9,  and  between  interest 
in  the  last  three  years  of  the  elementary  school  and  capacity 
in  the  college  period  as  0.6.  He  concludes:  "These  facts 
unanimously  witness  to  the  importance  of  early  interests." 

It  is  always  unsafe  to  apply  conclusions  based  on  averages — or  on 
60  or  90  per  cent — to  the  individual  case.  We  can  never  know  which 
is  the  exception.  Too  many  ''average"  boys  and  girls  have  broken 
the  rules  of  averages.  A  case  from  a  current  magazine  illustrates  the 
way  late  choices  are  made.  The  Polish  novelist  Stanislaw  Przyby- 
szewski  went  to  Berlin  in  1889,  at  the  age  of  21,  to  study  architecture. 
He  soon  changed  to  the  study  of  physiological  psychology,  but  in  1891 
became  editor  of  the  Berlin  Arheiter-Zeitung  and  leader  of  strikes  in 
Silesia.  In  Berlin  he  began  to  write  on  philosophical  subjects,  at  the 
age  of  30  became  editor  of  a  literary  magazine  in  Cracow,  and  thence 
went  to  Warsaw  and  devoted  himself  to  drama.  He  is  now  engaged 
in  writing  novels  and  in  lecturing. 

As  we  remarked  in  another  place,  a  person's  aim  is  likely  to  change 
as  he  proceeds  in  study  and  work,  and  his  period  of  vocational  explora- 
tion may  be  extended  so  long  as  he  is  occupying  the  time  in  ways 
profitable  to  himself  and  society.  A  forced  choice  might  lead  to  un- 
happiness  and  disaster.  (Brewer,  The  Vocational-Guidance  Movement, 
p.  127.) 


434         EVERYDAY   PSYCHOLOGY   FOR  TEACHERS 

SUMMARY 

The  guiding  aim  in  education  should  be  to  enable  the  indi- 
vidual (a)  to  reach  the  highest  possible  development  of  all  his 
powers,  (b)  to  select  a  career  of  usefulness  and  happiness,  and 
(c)  to  be  of  the  utmost  service  to  society.  In  order  to  assist 
individuals  to  accomplish  these  aims  it  is  necessary  for  the 
teacher  to  know  (a)  the  aims  of  education,  (b)  to  understand 
the  capabilities  (and  limitations)  of  each  child,  (c)  the  various 
vocational  needs  and  opportunities,  and  (d)  to  understand 
how  to  utilize  the  various  means  of  stimulating  each  individ- 
ual to  appropriate  forms  of  response  or  behavior. 

The  foregoing  chapters  are  designed  to  assist  the  beginning 
teacher  in  accomplishing  these  complex  results.  To  fully 
comprehend  the  desirable  ends  of  education  demands  much 
careful  analysis  and  constructive  thinking.  At  the  present 
moment  educational  objectives  are  very  vague  and  ill  defined 
in  the  minds  of  people  at  large.  Many  teachers  do  not  con- 
sider it  their  business  to  help  clarify  these.  They  should, 
however,  be  sincerely  concerned  with  such  problems.  The 
clearness  with  which  they  think  on  these  matters  will  deter- 
mine largely  their  interest  and  usefulness  in  the  profession. 
Teachers  usually  assume  that  skill  is  necessary  to  impart  in- 
struction, but  they  often  overlook  the  necessity  of  under- 
standing the  child  as  a  means  of  acquiring  skill  in  teaching. 
They  need  to  know  in  a  scientific  way  the  endowment  of  the 
child  and  the  psychological  laws  of  the  development  of  these 
native  powers  and  potentialities.  In  addition  the  teacher 
should  be  a  close  student  of  society  and  its  manifold  activities 
in  order  to  help  pupils  to  know  in  what  directions  they  may 
utilize  most  advantageously  for  themselves  and  society  the 
talents  they  possess. 

SOME  SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  Distinguish  between  vocation  and  merely  getting  a  living.  2.  Get 
clearly  in  mind  the  meaning  of  vocational  education,  vocational  training, 
vocational  guidance,  vocational  placement.  3.  Enumerate  the  kinds  of 
knowledge  a  teacher  would  need  for  each.     4.  Which  objective  seems  to 


VOCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  435 

be  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  people  at  the  present  time?  5.  President 
Farrand  is  reported  as  saying  that  "The  schools  must  get  rid  of  a  great 
deal  of  vocational  nonsense."  What  did  he  probably  mean?  Evaluate. 
6.  Enumerate  your  own  dominant  traits  and  see  if  you  know  in  what 
occupations  they  would  be  advantageous.  7.  Do  the  same  for  some  ac- 
quaintance. 8.  What  do  you  think  of  the  "characterologists"?  9. 
Enumerate  the  qualities  that  seem  to  contribute  to  achievement  in  learn- 
ing: the  multiplication  table,  geometry,  philosophy,  history,  manual  train- 
ing. 10.  Enumerate  those  qualities  that  make  for  success  as  a  farmer, 
private  secretary,  minister,  actor,  business  manager,  typewriter,  architect, 
lawyer.  11.  What  do  you  think  the  school  could  and  should  do  in  voca- 
tional guidance  ? 

References  for  Further  Reading 

1.  Brewer,  The  Vocational-Guidance  Movement:  Its  Problems  and  Possibili- 

ties.    Entire  book. 

2.  Book,  The  Intelligence  of  High  School  Seniors,  chaps.  VII,  VIII,  X,  XI. 

3.  Hollingworth,  Vocational  Psychology.     Entire  book. 

4.  Foster,  Should  Students  Study?,  chaps.  IV,  V. 

5.  Bloomfield,  Finding  One's  Place  in  Life.     Entire  book. 

6.  Miinsterberg,  Psychology  and  Industrial  Efficiency.     Entire  book. 

7.  Seashore,  Vocational  Guidance  in  Music.     Entire  book. 

8.  Snedden,  Vocational  Education.     Entire  book. 

9.  Hollingworth,  Judging  Human  Character,  chaps.  IX,  X,  XI. 


INDEX 


Ability  tests :  general  intelligence,  346- 
370;  in  music,  417-421;  in  stenog- 
raphy, 422;  in  telegraphy,  422. 

Achievement  tests:  samples,  373-392; 
evaluation  of,  392;  limitations  of, 
393;  pupil's  interest  in,  397. 

Activity,  instinct  of,  86. 

Adams,  166. 

Adolescence:  variations  in,  49;  and  life 
interests,  177. 

Age-grade  table,  47. 

Age  of  choosing  a  career,  430. 

Alexander  the  Great,  116. 

Altruism,  162. 

Analj^sis:  in  memory,  210;  psychologi- 
cal, 415. 

Anger,  150. 

Apprehension  vs.  comprehension,  207. 

Aristotle,  116,  126,  269. 

Arithmetic:  how  much  necessary,  20; 
instinct  for,  91;  scales,  382-390; 
abilities  distinct,  388. 

Army:  "alpha"  tests,  353;  prophesy- 
ing promotion  in,  423. 

Arrested  development,  94. 

Association:  definition,  195:  in  mem- 
ory, 195;  direction  of,  196;  purposive, 
198;  vividness  of,  199;  and  atten- 
tion, 200;  natural,  202;  and  clear- 
ness of  ideas,  206;  multiple,  215. 

Attention:  in  study,  29;  and  associa- 
tion, 200. 

Ayres:  criticism  of  tests,  367;  hand- 
writing scales,  375-379- 

Bagehot,  16. 

Bagley,  97,  155,  217,  304,  322,  329. 

Baldwin,  239. 

BaUiet,  280. 

"Barefoot  Boy,"  123. 

Barnes,  165. 

Behavior:  and  modes  of  learning,  99- 

341;  and  education,    101-112;   the 

direction  of,  305-322. 
Binet,  345-349- 
Binet-Simon,  367. 
Black  and  Davis,  299. 
Blind  alley  jobs,  24. 
Bloomfield,  435. 


Bolton,  II,  57,  97,  112,  124,  155,  181, 
217,  239,  267,  284,  304,  322,  331, 
341- 

Book,  43,  371,  400,  410,  435. 

Books  and  sensory  experiences,  121. 

Boys'  public  opinion  through  imita- 
tion, 237. 

Brewer,  424,  425,  432,  433,  435. 

Bridges,  357. 

Bridgman,  Laura,  182. 

Brooks,  397. 

Bruno,  269. 

Bryan,  89. 

Bunyan,  282. 

Burbank,  54. 

Burnham,  190. 

Burroughs,  247. 

Butler,  14,  27. 

Byron,  265. 

Cameron,  57,  97,  124,  155,  217,  267, 
284,  304,  321,  341,  397. 

Career,  age  of  choosing,  430. 

Carpenter,  247. 

Chance  environment,  16. 

Chicago,  150. 

Child:  importance  of  knowledge  of,  6; 
the  centre,  18. 

Children's:  imagination,  249;  induc- 
tions, 286-292. 

Chubb,  227. 

Citizenship,  the  highest  education,  23. 

Classification  in  relation  to  concepts, 
278. 

Clearness  of  ideas,  20^^ , 

Cobb,  43,  358. 

College  entrance  examinations  stand- 
ardized, 361. 

CoUoton,  399. 

Columbus,  269. 

Colvin,  97,  112,  124,  155,  181,  208, 
217,  267,  284,  304,  321,  341. 

Comenius,  264. 

Comprehension  vs.  apprehension,  207. 

Concepts:  fundamental  motor,  107; 
psychological  meaning  of,  273; 
genetic  view  of,  274;  in  relation  to 
language,  276;  statement  of,  277;  in 
relation  to  classification,  278. 


437 


438 


INDEX 


Conklin,  63,  64,  65,  70,  72. 
Conservation  of  experience,  182-217. 
Construct! veness,  instinct  of,  86. 
Control:    directions    of,    312;    intel- 
lectual, 314;  emotional,  316;  motor, 

319. 

Cook,  Joseph,  205. 

Coover,  326,  327. 

Copernicus,  269. 

Correlation  between  grades :  (a)  in  dif- 
ferent subjects,  401,  402;  (b)  in 
lower  and  higher  schools,  403;  (c) 
between  school  work  and  life-work, 
408-410. 

Courtis,  53,  54;  arithmetic  scales  of, 
382-384,  389. 

Cramming  for  examination,  282. 

Creed,  Dewey's  pedagogic,  95. 

Crowd,  imitation  of,  222. 

Curiosity,  85. 

Curricula,  differentiation  of,  55. 

Curriculum :  purpose  and  constituents, 
Ch.  II;  in  relation  to  formal  dis- 
cipline, 337;  as  a  vocational  test, 

423- 
Curtis,  132,  139. 

Darwin,  69,  116,  164. 

Davenport,  75. 

Davis,  426,  427,  429,  430. 

Davis  and  Black,  299. 

Deahl,  223,  225. 

Dean,  114. 

Dearborn,  35,  329,  403-405. 

Deduction  and  induction,  285-304; 
methods,  297-305;  definition  of  de- 
duction, 298;  relation  of  laboratory, 
302. 

Delboeuf,  184. 

Deliberation  and  will,  319. 

Development,  arrest  of,  94. 

DeVoss,  397. 

Dewey,  8,  11,  12,  19,  20,  21,  27,  56,  95, 
97,  112,  120,  124,  137,  139,  159,  181, 
207,  217,  397. 

Differentiation  of  curricula,  55. 

Disease,  heredity  tendencies,  68. 

Doll,  399. 

Dramatization,  137. 

Dream  images  and  illusions,  244. 

Dugdale,  65. 

Dumont,  184. 

Dutton,  214. 

Dynamic  side  of  life:  will,  305, 


Earhart,  35. 

Ebbinghaus,  208. 

Ebert,  329. 

Education:  meaning  and  purpose,  Ch. 

II;  p)opular  notion,  13;  psychologic 

foundations,  15;  "bread  and  butter 

idea,"  19;  "preparation  for  life,"  20; 

"is  life,"  20;  Huxley's  definition,  25; 

relation  to  instinct,  82-97;  and  will, 

321. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  66.   . 
Egoism,  161. 
Eliot,  178,  430. 
Emotional  control,  316. 
Emotions,    140-155;    importance    in 

education,  140;  meaning,  141-142; 

Lange- James  theory  of,  144;  reflex 

effect  of  expressing,  145;  imitation 

in,   147;  of  fear,   148;  anger,   150; 

sympathy,  152. 
Endo\Mnent,  native,  59-97. 
Englehardt,  397. 
Enrolment  in  schools,  93. 
Environment,  16,  60. 
Ethical  ideals  in  education,  26. 
Eugenics,  59. 
Examinations:    cramming    for,    282; 

standardized,  college  entrance,  361. 
Experience:    direct    necessary,     113; 

earliest,  115;  need  of  varied,  339. 
Experiments:  lessons  from  scientific, 

4;  in  memory,  189-195;  in  transfer 

of  training,  324-330. 
Expression  an  index  to  mind,  loi:  of 

emotions,  145. 

Failures,  some  causes  of,  5. 

Farm  life,  15. 

Farrand,  435. 

Faunce,  257,  258. 

Fay,  69. 

Fear,  148. 

Feehng,  meaning,  141. 

Fernon,  399. 

Field  trips,  120. 

Fiske,  40. 

Fitch,  209. 

Formal  discipline,  323-344;  experi- 
ments in,  324-330;  in  relation  to 
individual  differences,  330;  biologi- 
cal evidence,  331;  appHcation  in 
curriculum  making,  337. 

Foster,  Mabel,  401. 

Foster,  W.  T.,  406,  408,  410.  424,  435- 


INDEX 


439 


Franklin,  228. 

Froebel,  126. 

Fundamental  acquisitions,  1 13-124. 

Galileo,  269. 

Garrison,  399. 

Genetic  view  of  will,  306-308. 

Genetics,  60. 

Geography:     imagination     in,     253; 

scales,  390,  392. 
Gesell,  39. 
Gifted  children,  53. 
Gladstone,  310. 
Goddard,  67. 

Grammar  school,  adjustment  to,  92. 
Grand  Rapids,  47-49. 
Gray,  378. 

Gray's  "Elegy,"  263. 
Gregory- Spencer  geography  tests,  392. 
Groszmann,  52. 
Guiler,  370. 
Guy,  358. 
Guyer,  75. 

Habit:  relation  to  thinking,  279;  re- 
lation to  will,  308;  and  character, 
320. 

Haggerty,  357. 

Hall,  15,  81,  124,  256,  319. 

Halleck,  124,  205. 

Handwriting,  375-380;  reasons  for 
scales  in,  376;  testing  speed,  376;  di- 
rections for  giving  tests,  377;  score 
card,  378. 

Hanus,  27. 

Hard  wick,  357. 

Harris,  15,  84,  95,  327,  328. 

Health,  care  for  child's,  7. 

Heck,  341. 

Heredity,  59-75;  meaning  of,  61 ;  phys- 
ical, 62;  mental,  63;  in  disease,  68; 
relation  to  life  insurance,  70;  experi- 
mental evidence,  71;  relation  to  I. 
Q.,  71;  educational  bearings,  73. 

Hering,  191. 

High-school  seniors,  intelligence  of, 
400. 

Hinsdale,  118. 

History  scales,  390-392. 

Hoke,  377,  382,  395,  397. 

Hollingworth,  72,  371,  409,  410,  422, 

435- 
Hollingworth  and  Pofifenberger,  72. 
Holmes,  410. 


Home  as  an  educator,  13. 

Ho  wells,  237-239. 

Hunt,  224. 

Huxley's  definition  of  education,  25. 

Ideals  and  formal  discipline,  336. 
Ideas,  clearness  of,  206. 
Ideo-motor  action,  219. 
Illusions,  244. 

Imagination,  240-267;  meaning,  240; 
illustrations,  241;  children's,  249; 
meaning  of  training,  252;  relation 
to  memory,  243;  types,  245;  limita- 
tions, 246;  individual  differences, 
246,  253;  in  geography,  253;  ob- 
jective basis,  255-259;  in  science, 
260;  and  invention,  262;  in  study  of 
literature,  263;  in  everyday  Ufe,  266. 

Imitation:  218-239;  recent  recogni- 
tion, 218;  meaning,  218;  not  always 
voluntary,  219;  relation  to  ideo- 
motor  action,  219;  illustrations,  220; 
dramatic,  222;  of  the  crowd,  222;  in 
literature,  224;  educational  value, 
225;  in  language,  225;  in  children, 
229;  adolescent,  229;  and  person- 
ality, 231;  ideahstic,  233;  and  social 
responsibilities,  233;  in  school  gov- 
ernment, 234;  and  public  opinion 
among  boys,  237. 

Individual  differences,  39-58;  in  men- 
tal achievements,  41-44;  revealed 
by  school  survey,  45;  causes,  46; 
shown  by  age-grade  table,  47;  how 
discover,  49;  ministration  to,  50;  in 
memory,  186;  in  imagination,  246; 
in  relation  to  formal  discipline,  330. 

Individual's  analysis,  415. 

Induction:  meaning,  285;  and  deduc- 
tion, 285-304;  perfect  and  imper- 
fect, 286;  children's,  286;  exercises, 
288;  relation  to  text-books,  293;  in 
everyday  life,  294;  relation  to  labo- 
ratory, 302. 

Inhibition,  105. 

Initiative,  34,  156-181. 

Instinct,  76-97;  not  confined  to  lower 
animals,  76;  meaning,  76;  defined, 
77;  modifiability,  78;  maturing 
periods,  80;  educational  applica- 
tions, 82-97;  basis  of  interest,  160. 

Institutional  influences.  14. 

Instruction,  order  of,  292. 

Intellectual  control,  314. 


440 


INDEX 


InteUigence:  scores,  42;  I.  Q.,  71;  tests, 
uses  of,  364;  values  of,  365;  caution 
in,  368;  of  high-school  seniors,  400; 
of  seniors'  and  parents'  occupation, 
416;  and  vocational  intentions,  416. 

Interest:  meaning,  156;  as  a  means, 
156;  as  an  end,  157;  and  efifort,  158; 
and  instincts,  160;  child's  interest  in 
concrete,  163;  in  utility,  165;  rela- 
tion to  imitation,  170;  spontaneity 
of,  170;  in  self-improvement,  174; 
through  co-operation,  174;  in  adoles- 
cence, 177;  children's  in  scales,  397; 
and  memory,  205. 

I.  Q-,  78,  350,  398-400. 

Irving,  264. 

James,  81,  88,  102,  116,  124,  144,  146, 
149,  156,  181,  184,  185,  188,  189, 
191,  192,  217,  222,  307,  308,  310, 

324,  341- 
James-Lange  theory  of  emotions,  144. 
Jennings,  75,  97- 
Johnson,  139. 
Jordan,  61. 

Judd,  12,  27,  57,  329,  336,  337,  341. 
Juke  family,  65. 

Kalevala,  224. 

Kallikak  family,  67. 

Keats,  228. 

Keller,  Helen,  246. 

Kelley,  424. 

Kellogg,  71. 

KeUv,  397- 

Kiuson,  35. 

Knowledge,  origin  of,  113. 

Kohs,  423. 

Kuhlmann,  346. 

Laboratory:  and  motor  training,  109; 
in  relation  to  induction  and  deduc- 
tion, 302. 

Lamarckians,  74. 

Lange,  144,  146,  149. 

Lange- James  theory  of  emotions,  144; 
educational  suggestions  from,  147. 

Language:  instinct,  84,  92;  motor  as- 
pects of,  no;  relation  to  concepts, 
276. 

Laura  Bridgman,  182. 

Learning,  modes  cf,  99-341;  by 
"whole  and  cart."  194 


Lecture  method,  34. 

Lee,  139. 

Lesson  preparation,  29. 

Lewis,  78. 

Life  insurance  and  heredity,  70. 

Life  outside  of  school,  9. 

Life:  triangle  of,  60;  school  of,  123. 

Link,  422. 

Literature:  instinct  for,  94;  imitation 

in,  224;  imagination  in,  263. 
Locke,  126. 
Lough,  422. 
Love,  143. 
Lowell,  407,  424. 
Luther,  126,  181,  310. 

McCall,  371,  397. 

McLellan,  207. 

McMurry,  35,  157,  272,  304. 

Marshall,  77. 

Measurement:  343-397;  of  mental 
ability,  345-371 ;  beginnings,  345; 
Binet-Simon  tests,  346-349;  Ter- 
man's  revision,  349-353;  army 
''alpha"  tests,  353-357;  Yerkes's 
point  scale,  357;  national  intel- 
ligence tests,  357-361;  Thurstone's 
psychological  examinations,  361- 
363;  uses  of  intelligence  tests,  364; 
value  of  tests,  365;  caution  in,  368; 
of  achievement,  372-397;  compara- 
tive methods,  372;  Ayres's  hand- 
writing scale,  375;  testing  speed  in 
writing,  376;  Gray's  score-card,  380. 
Scales:  Ayres's  spelling,  382;  Cour- 
tis's arithmetic,  382;  Woody's 
arithmetic,  384;  Monroe's  Illinois 
arithmetic,  387-388;  Van  Wage- 
nen's  history,  390-392;  Gregory- 
Spencer  geography,  392;  evaluation 
of,  392;  limitations  of,  393;  chil- 
dren's interest  in,  397. 

Memory:  182-217;  meaning,  182;  four 
factors  in,  182;  physical,  physiologi- 
cal, mental,  182-186;  analogy  of 
phonograph,  185;  retention,  186;  in- 
dividual differences,  186;  children's, 
187;  what  should  be  remembered, 
187;  training,  188;  experiments, 
189-195;  memorizing,  193;  and  as- 
sociation, 195;  ''whole-part"  meth- 
od, 194;  repetition,  202;  varieties, 
203;  and  interest,  205;  modes  of  re- 
call,   208,    209;    analysis    in,    210; 


INDEX 


441 


selective,  210;  and  recitation,  211; 
and  thought,  214. 

Mental  relaxation  in  play,  128. 

Meriam,  57,  138,  139,  181. 

Method :  determined  by  child  psychol- 
ogy, 7;  lecture,  34. 

Meumann,  329. 

Meyer,  75,  97. 

Michaelangelo,  224,  261. 

Miles,  405,  424. 

Miller,  27,  35,  181. 

Milton,  definition  of  education,  26, 
282. 

Mind    revealed    through    expression, 

lOI. 

Miner,  114. 

Monroe,  269,  397;  arithmetic  tests, 
385-388._ 

Montessori,  136. 

Moral  guidance,  427. 

Morgan  Lloyd,  86,  185. 

Motivation,  156-181;  relation  to  in- 
stinct, 160;  relation  to  utility,  165; 
through  results,  167. 

Motor  activity:  significance,  101-112; 
in  relation  to  health  and  disease, 
103;  purpose  of,  104;  relation  to  in- 
hibition, 105;  in  laboratory,  109; 
means  of  training,  109;  in  language, 
no. 

Motor  control,  109,  319. 

M.  Q..  400. 

Miiller,  Max,  84. 

Miinsterberg,  435. 

Musical  talent  charts,  420-421. 


Napoleon,  310. 

National  Business  Ability  Tests,  423. 
National  Intelligence  Tests,  357-360. 
National  superiority,  25. 
Native  endowment,  59-97- 
Norsworthy,  139,  155,  239,  267,  284. 
Notes:  taking,  32;  card  catalogue,  ^y, 
siunmaries,  S3- 

Objective  illustrations  basis  of  imagi- 
nation, 255-259. 
Objective  teaching,  118. 
Objective  tests,  evaluation  of,  392. 
Olney,  298. 

Order  of  instruction,  292. 
O'Shea,  97,  181,  239,  322. 
Out-of-school  experiences,  9. 


Parker,  112,  181,  217,  284,  397. 

Part-whole  method,  194. 

Paterson  and  Pintner,  357. 

Patrick,  128,  139. 

Pease,  190. 

Peixotto,  433. 

Performance,  prophesying,  398-410, 

Personal  qualities  and  vocational  suc- 
cess, 426. 

Pestalozzi,  140. 

Phonograph,  analogy  to  memory,  185. 

Pintner  and  Paterson,  357. 

Plato,  126,  225, 

Play,  125-139;  instinct  of,  88;  mean- 
ing, 127;  instinctive  character  of, 
128;  values,  130;  in  physical  educa- 
tion, 131;  social  values,  133;  oppor- 
tunities for,  134;  through  work,  136; 
in  dramatization,  138;  in  school  sub- 
jects, 138. 

Playground,  16. 

Plays  contrasted  with  games,  127. 

Poffenberger  and  Rolling  worth,  72. 

Point  scale,  357. 

Poull,  399. 

Predicting  performance,  398-410. 

Pressey,  397. 

Primitive  arts  and  occupations,  17. 

Proctor,  400,  423. 

Professional  training,  recent,  3, 

Promotions,  48,  54. 

Prophesying  performance,  398-410. 

Psychologic  foundations  of  education. 

Psychological  analysis,  415. 
Psychological  quacks,  414. 
Psychology:  vocational,  411-435;   of 

musical  talent,  417-421. 
Public  opinion  among  boys,  237. 
Pyle,  194,  217,  284. 

Quacks,  in  psychology,  414. 

Raphael,  224. 

Reading  as  play,  129. 

Realists,  118. 

RecaU,  182,  208. 

Rechoice  of  vocation,  432. 

Recitation,     importance    in  memory, 

211. 
Record-Herald,  150. 
Reed,  328-330. 
Registration,  182. 
Remembering,  182,  187. 


442 


INDEX 


Repetition  in  memory,  202. 
Responsibility  and  interest,  171. 
Retention,  182,  186. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  223. 
Ribot,  62,  69,  8s,  146. 
Riis,  Mrs.  Jacob  A,,  237. 
Roberts,  407,  410. 
Rousseau,  21. 
Royce,  305,  308,  322. 
Ruger,  329. 
Rugg,  326,  399. 

Sachs,  70. 

Sandwick,  35. 

Scales,  see  Measurement. 

Schaeffer,  117,  119,  284. 

Schiller,  126. 

School:  an  interpreter  of  experience, 
18;  enrolment  in  U.  S.,  93;  and  life, 
123;  government  through  imitation, 
234;  grades  and  vocational  success, 
423. 

Science  in  all  occupations,  3. 

Scientific  experiments,  4;  results  ap- 
parent, 10. 

Score-card  in  handwriting,  380,  381. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  246. 

Search,  52. 

Seashore,  417-421,  435. 

Sense-perceptions:  acquisition  of,  113- 
124;  earliest,  115. 

Sensory  training:  meaning  of,  117;  re- 
lation to  books,  121. 

Shakespeare,  117,  119,  224. 

Shinn,  87. 

Shutts,  301. 

Slichter  and  Van  Velzer,  292. 

Small,  250. 

Smith,  27,  405. 

Snedden,  435. 

Snyder,  194. 

Social:  instinct,  89;  values  of  play,  133; 
customs  through  imitation,  233. 

Spelling:  associations,  204;  scales,  381- 

383- 
Spencer,  Herbert,  19,  20,  85,  157,  169, 

171. 
Spencer-Gregory  geography  tests,  392. 
Spontaneity  of  interests,  170. 
Starch,  57,  97,  217,  328,  332-334,  34i, 

371- 
Stenography,  tests  for  ability  in,  422. 
Stenquist,  358,  399. 
Stevenson,  228. 


Strayer,  304,  397. 

Strong,  58,  397. 

Student  initiative,  34. 

Studies  must  be  worth  while,  337. 

Study:  how  to,  Ch.  Ill;  definite  pro- 
gramme of,  28;  efficiency  important, 
28;  adequate  time  for,  29;  impor- 
tance of  surroundings,  29;  analyze 
problems  in,  31;  topical,  32;  regular 
schedule  for,  213;  supervised,  213; 
in  relation  to  thinking,  279-283. 

Substance  vs.  summaries,  215. 

Success  in  teaching  based  on  scientific 
knowledge,  3-12. 

Suggestibility,  250. 

Sully,  141. 

Summaries  vs.  substance,  215. 

Summary  of  this  book,  434. 

Supervised  study,  213. 

Survey  reveals  individual  differences, 

45. 
Suzzallo,  27. 
Sympathy,  152. 

Teachers:  should  master  subjects,  8; 
must  understand  life,  9;  problems 
summarized,  10. 

Teaching  successful,  see  Success;  ob- 
jective, 118. 

Telegraphy,  tests  for  ability  in,  422. 

Tennyson,  247. 

Terman,  6,  349-353,  357,  37i,  398, 
399- 

Tests:  general  discussion,  see  Meas- 
urement; in  music,  417-421. 

Text-book  in  relation  to  induction, 

293-. 

Thinking:  268-304;  definition,  268; 
importance  of,  268;  independence  in, 
268;  school  should  train  in,  270;  re- 
lation to  habit,  279;  effective  study, 
279-283. 

Thomas,  75,  97. 

Thomson,  62. 

Thorndike,  12,  44,  58,  59,  80,  82,  83, 
97,  15s,  217,  284,  304,  324,  341,  357. 

Thurstone,  361, 

Titchener,  142,  241,  267. 

Topical  study,  32. 

Town,  347. 

Trabue,  368. 

Training:  role  of,  60;  supposed  effects 
of,  323;  transfer  of,  323-344. 

Transfer    of    training:    323-344;    ex- 


INDEX 


443 


periments  in,  324-330;  biological 
evidence,  33 1 ;  relation  to  individual 
differences,  331;  types  of  transfer, 
334;  effect  of  ideals,  336;  application 
in  curriculum  making,  337. 

Tyler,  12,  75,  262. 

Tyndall,  261. 

Typewriting,  tests  for  ability  in,  422. 

University  education  complex,  56. 
Unscientific  experience  costly,  4. 
Utility:  relation  to  interest,   165;  in 
studies,  337. 

Van  Velzer  and  Slichter,  292. 

Van  Wagenen  history  tests,  390-392. 

Venn,  182. 

Vocabulary,  extent  of,  84. 

Vocation,  meaning  of,  412. 

Vocational:  eflSciency,  22;  training,  25; 
psychology,  411;  education,  mean- 
ing of,  411;  guidance,  414;  success 
and  school  grades,  423;  guidance, 
what  may  be  done,  425;  success  and 
personal  qualities,  426;  guidance, 
who  should  give,  429;  skill,  431;  re- 
choice,  432. 

VoUtion:  meaning,  309;  individual 
variations  in,  310. 

Waddle,  75,  139. 
Wallin,  329. 
Walter,  60,  75. 


Warner,  232. 

Watson,  75,  77,  97,  112. 

Weismannians,  74. 

Welton,  272. 

Whipple,  35,  53,  329,  357. 

White,  118. 

Whitley,  139,  155,  267,  284. 

Whittier,  123. 

''Whole-part"  method,  194. 

Will:  development  in  child,  306;  defini- 
tion, 308;  and  habit,  308;  what  is  a 
strong,  308;  means  accumulated 
tendencies,  311;  transfer  of  effects, 
312;  directions  of  control,  312;  and 
deliberation,  319;  and  character, 
320;  educational  significance,  321. 

Wilson,  181,  377,  382,  395,  397. 

Winch,  329. 

Winship,  66. 

Witt,  Robert,  266,  284. 

Woodworth,  112,  155,  194,  217,  267, 
284,  322,  324,  341. 

Woody  arithmetic  scales,  384-385. 

Woolley,  358. 

Work  through  play,  136. 

Xenophbn,  225. 

Yerkes  point  scales,  357,  371. 
Yoakum,  371. 

Ziehen,  113. 


